Preying on the Panther
The FBI’s (c)overt war against the Black Panther
Party, 1968-1971
Niels Haak 3150984
MA Thesis, American Studies Program, Utrecht University
24-06-2011
Index
Introduction
1
Chapter I: A History of the Black Panther Party
6
Chapter II: COINTELPRO and the Black Panther Party
20
Chapter III: The Demise of the Black Panther Party
37
Conclusion
62
Appendix A
66
Bibliography
70
1 – Niels Haak 3150984
Introduction
It is safe to say that the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was unlike any other social
movement of the 1960s. While prominent civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. still believed in the Gandhian principles of non-violence, the Black Panthers
preached an entirely different message. They emphasized the need for armed struggle
and self-defense in the black communities of the United States. By invoking the ideals of
the likes of Malcolm X, the Panthers managed to appeal to those who became
increasingly disillusioned with the passivity of the civil rights movement. These people
were prepared to take what was rightfully theirs, by any means necessary.
The Black Panther Party initially set out to help people to meet their daily needs.
The black communities of Oakland, where the Party was founded, were confronted with
various forms of social oppression on a daily basis. They suffered from poor education,
housing, and health care, which the Panthers tried to remedy through the establishment
of community organized “survival” programs. However, the most pressing issue of all was
police brutality. The police were known to both physically and psychologically abuse
people in the poorest of black communities, and so the Panthers set out to do something
about it. With a gun in one hand and a book of law in the other, the Panthers began
patrolling the neighborhoods in an attempt to raise consciousness in the black
communities of Oakland. By showing people that they could stand up against the police,
they hoped that the black communities would realize that they could determine their
own fate and liberate themselves from their oppressor.
The Black Panther Party’s revolutionary ideals proved to be a formula for success,
as it did not take long for the Party to rise to national prominence. While this new
2 – Niels Haak 3150984
popularity caused the BPP to expand drastically, it also attracted the attention of local
and national law enforcement agencies. Among others, J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI were
keeping a close eye on the Panthers. The Bureau was already in the process of setting up
a series of counter-intelligence programs (COINTELPRO), which were designed to disrupt
and neutralize so-called Black Nationalist Hate Groups. The BPP was not a part of this
program at first, but when J. Edgar Hoover declared that the Party was the “greatest
threat to the internal security of the country”, it became clear that he considered the BPP
to be a clear threat to the status quo in the United States. 1 The FBI thus set out to
destroy the BPP before it could realize its ideals.
This research will focus on the FBI’s (c)overt war against the Black Panther Party between
1968 and 1971. By the time the FBI’s COINTELPRO ended in 1971, the damage to the
Black Panther Party had already been done. Membership was in steady decline, the public
image had been ruined, and internal fragmentation was severe. However, to what extent
should this decline be attributed to the FBI’s counter-intelligence programs?
The Black Panther Party has become an increasingly popular subject of scholarly
analysis in recent years. Most scholars nowadays focus on a broad reconsideration of the
Party, because since its inception, the BPP has been reduced to nothing more than an
ordinary gang of criminals by scholars and media alike. This is largely due to the fact that
very little was known and written about the Party at first. Some of the early work was
written by prominent Black Panthers themselves, such as Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul on Ice
(1968), Bobby Seale’s Seize the Time (1970), and Huey P. Newton’s To Die for the People
1
U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities,
Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans, Book III
th
(Washington, D.C.: 94 Congress, 1975) 187.
3 – Niels Haak 3150984
(1972). These works offered a unique perspective on the Party, but, needless to say, they
lacked objectivity. This could also be said about Hugh Pearson’s The Shadow of the
Panther (1994), which is considered to be the first complete history of the Black Panther
Party. Pearson himself is considered to be a “traditionalist”, because his portrayal of the
Black Panthers as a bunch of militant, gun-toting criminals matches the traditional image
of the Party. This image was later challenged by scholars who advocated a broad
reconsideration of the BPP. Leading the charge was a collection of essays, edited by
Charles E. Jones, entitled The Black Panther Party Reconsidered (1998). The essays
included in this collection challenge traditional misconceptions about the Party by
reinterpreting its role in the African American struggle for liberty. The contributing
scholars are still critical of the Party, but their essays nevertheless construct a much more
balanced account of the history of the BPP. A similar trend can be discerned in recent
scholarship as well, as shown by works such as Curtis J. Austin’s Up Against the Wall
(2006), Jama Lazerow and Yohuru Williams’ In Search of the Black Panther Party (2006),
and Paul Alkebulan’s Survival Pending Revolution (2007). All of these scholars continue to
reconsider and revise the history of the BPP in an attempt to do it more justice.
Research on the connection between the FBI’s COINTELPRO and the downfall of
the Black Panther Party has been an important part of Panther historiography. One of the
most important sources for such research has been the U.S. Senate Select Committee to
Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, otherwise known
as the Church Committee. This committee conducted an enormous investigation of
intelligence agencies throughout the United States in the 1970s. By collecting and
publishing both public and private files from numerous federal agencies, including the
4 – Niels Haak 3150984
FBI, the Church Committee created a report that contained a wealth of information on
the true nature of operations of U.S. intelligence agencies.
The Church Committee reports detailed what the FBI had done to undermine the
BPP. As a result, scholars began debating the effectiveness of the FBI’s programs. That
effectiveness was downplayed by sociologists such as Gary T. Marx and Anthony
Oberschall in the late 1970s, who argued that FBI counter-intelligence programs had a
marginal effect on the decline of “hostile” social movements. This point of view was
challenged by scholars such as David J. Garrow, who argues in “FBI Political Harassment
and FBI Historiography” (1988) that previous analyses of the effectiveness of FBI
programs were overstated to a certain degree. According to Garrow, more research had
to be done before conclusions could be drawn.
More research has been done in recent years, with the debate focusing on
whether external or internal factors were the primary cause for the demise of the Black
Panther Party. While some scholars, such as Wade Churchill and Jim Vander Wall in
Agents of Repression (1988), emphasize the importance of the FBI’s counter-intelligence
programs, other scholars emphasize the importance of internal problems within the Party
more. This research paper is a response to that trend. By discussing the form and
effectiveness of the FBI’s counter-intelligence programs in greater detail, I intend to shed
some new light on the current debate. Scholars continue to either overemphasize or
marginalize the role of the FBI’s counter-intelligence programs in the unmaking of the
Black Panther Party. The problem with this approach is that the complex dynamics of the
demise of the Black Panther Party are being ignored. As Doug McAdam argues in an
article entitled “The Decline of the Civil Rights Movement” (1983), ‘the fate of any social
movement is not simply a product of internal movement dynamics or external political
5 – Niels Haak 3150984
processes but the interaction of the two.’ 2 With that in mind, I will argue that the FBI’s
COINTELPRO certainly had a profound effect on the Party. However, the demise of the
Black Panther Party should not be attributed to either internal or external factors alone.
Instead, as I will argue, it was the interaction between internal and external factors that
would eventually lead to the demise of the BPP. The BPP´s internal issues and the FBI’s
counter-intelligence programs had a mutually reinforcing effect on one another. As the
Party’s internal tensions grew, the FBI made sure to further exploit and exacerbate these
tensions. And because of the FBI’s interferences, these internal tensions continued to
grow more out of proportions. There was thus a vicious cycle of sorts, with the internal
and external forces operating in tandem, which eventually caused the Black Panther Party
to spiral out of control.
This research paper will be subdivided into three chapters. The first chapter will provide a
general overview of the history of the Black Panther Party. Starting with the ideas of
Stokely Carmichael and Malcolm X, this first chapter will trace the development of the
Party from its inception up to its rise to national prominence. The second chapter will
deal with the history and evolution of COINTELPRO in the context of the FBI’s war against
the Black Panther Party. The discussion in this chapter will focus on the FBI’s goals and
tactics (i.e. its modus operandi) and its rationalization of COINTELPRO. The third chapter
will focus on the FBI’s role in the demise of the Black Panther Party. By discussing in
greater detail the FBI’s particular involvement in the events that eventually led to the
demise of the Party, this chapter will consider to what extent the demise of the BPP
should be attributed to the FBI’s counter-intelligence programs.
2
Doug McAdam, “The Decline of the Civil Rights Movement,” in Social Movements of the Sixties and
Seventies, ed. Jo Freeman (New York: Longman, 1983) 316.
6 – Niels Haak 3150984
Chapter I: A History of the Black Panther Party
When Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale sat down at the North Oakland Service Center on
October 15, 1966 to create a program for their new organization, they were ready to stir
things up in America. The Service Center was an ideal place, because there were plenty of
books available to draw ideas from. However, Newton and Seale did not need any books.
After twenty short minutes of deliberation, a ten-point program had been drafted.
Newton and Seale made sure to couch the program in simple terms, so that everyone
would be able to understand its message: we want freedom, and we want it now. With
the creation of this ten-point program, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was born.
The roots of the Black Panther Party can be traced back to the civil rights movement of
the 1960s. Even though African-Americans had won major legal victories with the passing
of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965, systematic oppression
was hardly a thing of the past. Virulent racism and violence were still part of daily life for
many African-Americans, especially those living in the south. Major civil rights
organizations, such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), actively tried to solve these issues
throughout the United States, but their call for freedom was mostly met with violence by
the dominant white society. These organizations continued to rely on Gandhian principles
of nonviolence, which increasingly frustrated those African-Americans who were
confronted with violence on a daily basis. They could no longer put up with all the abuse.
As a result, a split began to develop within the civil rights movement, between those who
7 – Niels Haak 3150984
still believed in nonviolent interracial cooperation and those who advocated a more
pragmatic approach.
One of the front-runners of this new approach was Stokely Carmichael. He became
the fourth chairman of SNCC in May, 1966. One month later, Carmichael surprised friend
and foe alike by introducing the term “Black Power” in one of his speeches. The concept
of Black Power emphasized racial and cultural awareness and pride, and articulated the
belief that African-Americans had to focus on achieving self-determination. Whereas Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. advocated integration, Carmichael advocated separation. He
believed that there was no place for African-Americans in white society. Therefore, if they
truly wanted a place for themselves in American society, African-Americans had to create
their own destinies.
Carmichael helped develop a new sense of militancy within the civil rights
movement. However, it is important to note that the focus on cultural awareness and
self-determination was not necessarily a new phenomenon. As Curtis J. Austin argues in
Up Against the Wall, it was the public declaration of these rights that was new to people.3
Civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. chose to rely on tactics of negotiation
and compromise to achieve their goals. Furthermore, they opted to rely on the Gandhian
principles of nonviolence to bring about change. For the next generation of activists,
however, the times had changed. They would no longer wait for the white establishment
to act. It was time for Black Power.
Another important influence for many young African-Americans was Malcolm X.
With his uncompromising stance towards the white oppressor, Malcolm X held the belief
that African-Americans had to take what was rightfully theirs, by any means necessary. He
3
Curtis J. Austin, Up Against the Wall: Violence in the Making and Unmaking of the Black Panther Party
(Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2007) 23.
8 – Niels Haak 3150984
did not advocate violence per se, but he did make it clear that self-defense was a top
priority. According to Malcolm X, African-Americans had to arm themselves in order to be
able to defend themselves and their communities. Much like the concept of Black Power,
the ideas of Malcolm X became incredibly popular among young African-Americans,
including Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.
Newton and Seale met each other in 1962 at Merritt Junior College in West Oakland. At
the time, Newton was a member of the Afro-American Association (AAA), whose purpose
was to develop a sense of pride among blacks for their shared heritage and their
contributions to American society. Newton left the Association after a while though,
because he believed that Donald Warden, the leader of the AAA, was leading people
“away from the truth of their situation.” 4 Bobby Seale was impressed with the ways in
which Newton was handling himself on campus, and so he decided to try and recruit him
into the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM). Like the AAA, RAM emphasized the
shared heritage of African-Americans, but it also advocated the need for armed selfdefense. Both Newton and Seale were drawn to these ideas, but the members of RAM
refused to let Newton join, because he was “too bourgeois.” 5 Shortly thereafter, Seale
was suspended from RAM himself. 6
What Bobby Seale did not know at the time was that Huey Newton had a hidden
reputation in the black communities of Oakland. On the one hand, he was known to be a
street brawler who engaged in criminal activities. On the other hand, he also got a lot of
respect for his insight and his kindness. People in Oakland knew that Huey Newton was
4
Huey P. Newton, Revolutionary Suicide (New York: Penguin Books, 2009) 66.
Newton, Revolutionary Suicide, 72.
6
Austin, Up Against the Wall, 29-30.
5
9 – Niels Haak 3150984
not be messed with. However, Newton’s reputation eventually caught up with him in late
1964, when he was found guilty of assault with a deadly weapon, for which he was sent
to prison for six months. Unlike most prisoners though, Newton did not allow prison to
break his spirit. Instead, he claims that solitary confinement made him stronger and
allowed him to experience a higher sense of freedom. 7
After Newton was released from jail, he and Seale began discussing the ideological
problems of the black liberation movement in greater detail. They first had to come up
with an explanation for why other black political organizations had failed to succeed. One
of the few organizations that did show promise in their eyes was Malcolm X’s
Organization of Afro-American Unity, because of its stance on self-defense. Malcolm had
a significant influence on Newton and Seale, as Newton later claimed that the spirit of
Malcolm X lived on in the Black Panther Party. However, even though Newton and Seale
shared Malcolm’s belief that African-Americans had to take what was rightfully theirs, by
any means necessary, they still had no clear conception of how to put these ideas into
practice. 8
Newton and Seale were actively trying to figure out how they could best reach out
to the black communities of Oakland. They soon decided that they would start working
through a front group of RAM, the Soul Students Advisory Council (SSAC). At the time,
Soul Students was trying to establish a course on Afro-American history and culture at
Merritt College, but the authorities kept resisting its implementation. Newton and Seale
planned on using this opportunity to move Soul Students a step further by suggesting that
they adopt a program of self-defense. According to Newton, “we wanted them to
dedicate themselves to armed self-defense with the full understanding that this was
7
8
Newton, Revolutionary Suicide, 103-108.
Idem, 111.
10 – Niels Haak 3150984
defense for the survival of black people in general and in particular for the cultural
program we were trying to establish.” 9 Police brutality was a huge problem in the black
communities of Oakland, and so a program of armed self-defense was deemed necessary
to counteract the abuse by police forces and campus authorities alike. However, both the
SSAC and RAM rejected the idea of armed self-defense. To them, the program appeared
to be suicidal. 10
All during this time, Newton and Seale had no plans to start an organization of
their own. However, it was becoming painfully obvious that the Oakland police was trying
to strike fear into the communities by carrying guns out in the open. For Newton, this
proved to be the turning point. He and Bobby Seale realized that “the rising
consciousness of black people was almost at the point of explosion.” They were both
convinced that “our time had come.” According to Newton, “out of this need sprang the
Black Panther Party.” 11
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense on
October 15, 1966. Having read and discussed works such as Franz Fanon’s The Wretched
of the Earth, Robert Williams’ Negroes with Guns, and several of Malcolm X’s writings,
Newton and Seale were ready to educate the so-called “brothers on the block”. However,
before they could get started, they needed a party program. So, Newton and Seale sat
down to create a platform that anyone could relate to. The result was the Ten-Point
Program, which contained both the practical (“What We Want”) and philosophical (“What
9
Newton, Revolutionary Suicide, 113.
Idem, 112-114.
11
Idem, 115.
10
11 – Niels Haak 3150984
We Believe”) tenets of the Black Panther Party. 12 The central tenet of the program was
clear: “We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black
Community.” This emphasis on freedom served as the foundation for other points in the
program as well, which focused on the numerous social issues confronting black
communities, such as poor education, housing, and police brutality. As the program
suggests, the BPP essentially set out to assist the black community in liberating itself from
its oppressor by organizing and educating the people. With Huey Newton as its Minister
of Defense and Bobby Seale as its Chairman, the BPP was ready to revolutionize this
community.
Even though there were many different forms of social oppression at play in the
poor black communities, the Panthers correctly realized that one issue demanded their
immediate and undivided attention. Police brutality was a major issue in every black
community. Instead of serving the people, police forces often harassed and intimidated
people in the communities. The BPP therefore decided to start patrolling the police with
arms in order to keep its behavior in check. Furthermore, the patrols would also serve as
a recruiting device, because the BPP hoped that these patrols would attract some
attention to its cause. With a gun in one hand, and a book of law in the other, the
Panthers acted as guardians of the black community. At first, the police had no idea how
to respond to the situation. They were not used to being confronted by AfricanAmericans who wielded guns and who had extensive knowledge of the law. The BPP
made good use of this situation by showing the people in the communities that the police
was overstepping its boundaries. However, it did not take very long for the police to
adapt to the new situation. Panthers were frequently harassed, intimidated, and arrested
12
For the entire Ten-Point Program, see Appendix A.
12 – Niels Haak 3150984
on false charges by the Oakland police. They did everything in their power to disrupt the
BPP’s community organizing efforts. This worked to a certain extent, but it did not
prevent the Bay Area community from gradually accepting the BPP. 13
The Black Panther Party’s emphasis on self-defense should be seen within a larger
ideological context of survival. Newton and Seale realized that the black community had
to be prepared for the inevitable revolution. When the BPP first started, the black
community had not yet fully developed its consciousness. The people were convinced
that they were in no position to challenge their oppressor. In order to make these people
aware of their full potential, the BPP thought it would be necessary to create survival
programs for the community. These community organized programs would help people
to meet their daily needs, whether it be food, clothing, or medical care. The quality of
these basic needs was generally very poor in the black communities, so the BPP jumped in
to improve the overall quality of life. However, the survival programs were not the
solution to the people’s problems. The BPP often used the slogan “survival pending
revolution”. The survival programs were supposed to support the people until they could
free themselves from their subordinated position in society. The survival programs were
merely a tool used by the BPP to organize the community around a true understanding of
its situation. Newton and Seale had thus created the BPP with only one goal in mind: “All
Power to the People”. 14
An important thing to keep in mind is that Newton and the BPP were not racist.
Even though Malcolm X had been an important source of inspiration for the Panthers,
13
Newton, Revolutionary Suicide, 127-135.
The Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation, The Black Panther Party: Service to the People Programs
(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2008) 1-4, 157-158.
14
13 – Niels Haak 3150984
they did not share his conviction that all white people were bad. 15 Instead, Newton
believed that the struggle of the black community should be defined in terms of class,
rather than race. Class exploitation under the capitalist system was the real problem, and
so the BPP sought to cooperate with other communities to put an end to all forms of
exploitation. As Newton puts it:
…our ultimate aim is to have various ethnic communities co-operating in a spirit of
mutual aid, rather than competing. In this way, all communities would be allied in
a common purpose through the major social, economic, and political institutions
in the country. 16
The BPP, with its community-centered ideology, thus believed in the prospect of classbased cooperation between different ethnic groups and communities.
The Black Panther Party, with its emphasis on self-defense and police patrols, became a
local phenomenon in the black communities of Oakland. However, the BPP soon turned
out to be more than just a local phenomenon. With the help of the media, the Party
began its rise to national prominence.
As Chris Booker argues in “Lumpenization: A Critical Error of the Black Panther
Party”, the Panthers’ rise to national prominence was the result of a number of crucial
events that placed the BPP in a national spotlight. 17 The first of these events was the
escorting of Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X’s widow. A Malcolm X Memorial Day Conference
was being organized in February 1967, and the BPP was asked to provide security for
15
Malcolm X was known for his belief that all white people were “devils”. However, after he traveled to
Mecca in 1964, he moderated his view on whites.
16
Newton, Revolutionary Suicide, 178.
17
Chris Booker, “Lumpenization: A Critical Error of the Black Panther Party,” in The Black Panther Party
Reconsidered, ed. Charles E. Jones (Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1998) 341.
14 – Niels Haak 3150984
Betty Shabazz. Seeing as how the Party was infused with the spirit of Malcolm X, Newton
and Seale could not pass up on this opportunity. They agreed to provide Betty Shabazz
with an armed escort that would lead her around San Francisco. The Panthers’ first task
was to bring Betty to an office of Ramparts, a local magazine, where she had a number of
interviews lined up. Everything was going according to plan, until the police decided to
confront the Panthers outside the office. While Shabazz was quickly being escorted away
from the scene, Newton began taunting a cop who was ready to draw his weapon. Calling
him a “big fat racist pig”, Newton was ready for the cop to make a move. However, the
confrontation abruptly ended when the police decided to back down. 18
Even though the standoff at Ramparts was only a minor victory for the BPP, it had
significant consequences for the Panthers’ image. As Hugh Pearson argues in The Shadow
of the Panther, the events at Ramparts enhanced Newton’s “crazy nigger” image and
made the BPP more popular among young blacks who were increasingly interested in the
premise of armed confrontation. 19 The popularity of the BPP further increased when
Eldridge Cleaver joined in early 1967. Cleaver was released on parole from Soledad prison
in late 1966, after serving nine years in prison for rape. While he was in prison, Cleaver
converted to Islam and became a devoted follower of Malcolm X. He also began writing
articles for magazines such as Ramparts, which eventually led to the creation of his
famous book Soul on Ice. This book propelled Cleaver to celebrity status, so when Huey
Newton heard of Cleaver’s release from prison in early 1967, he was eager to recruit him
into the BPP. The Party could use someone like Cleaver, because he was a very talented
author and public speaker. Cleaver, however, seemed hesitant to join the BPP at first, but
18
Bobby Seale, Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton (Baltimore: Black
Classic Press, 1991) 125-130.
19
Hugh Pearson, The Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America
(Jackson: Perseus Books, 1996) 126.
15 – Niels Haak 3150984
after he and Newton had some long discussions about the ideological underpinnings of
the Party, he decided to join. The addition of Cleaver was an important step for the BPP,
because it both enhanced the Party’s prestige and could serve as an important recruiting
device. Because of his celebrity status, Cleaver would be able to attract a lot of young
new recruits to the Black Panther Party. 20
One of Eldridge Cleaver’s earliest contributions to the BPP was his involvement in
The Black Panther newspaper, which the Party began publishing in April, 1967. The paper
itself became an important vehicle for spreading the message of the BPP throughout the
black communities of Oakland. After the initial startup, the paper was published every
week, and was handed out to the people on the streets by the Black Panthers themselves.
However, The Black Panther newspaper would probably not have existed were it not for
the Denzil Dowell case.
Denzil Dowell was a twenty-two year old African-American male who lived in
North Richmond. On April 1, 1967, he was killed by police officers who claimed that
Dowell was running away from a stolen car. The police ruled his death a “justifiable
homicide”, because Dowell was allegedly committing a felony. However, after the BPP
started an investigation of its own, it became clear that Dowell had been murdered in
cold blood. As the investigation continued, the Panthers discovered that there had been a
series of police shootings in North Richmond. With this new information in mind, Huey
Newton decided that a rally would be held to inform the community of the need for selfdefense. With both Bobby Seale and Huey Newton speaking at the rally, the Panthers
impressed the community with their hands-on approach. The community became
convinced that Denzil Dowell had been an innocent victim, but the police would not
20
Newton, Revolutionary Suicide, 136-142.
16 – Niels Haak 3150984
budge. There would be no official investigation into the death of Denzil Dowell.
Disappointed and angered by the outcome of the case, Seale suggested that the BPP put
out a leaflet which would inform the community about the true nature of the Denzil
Dowell case. This leaflet would turn out to be the first step towards The Black Panther
newspaper. Not only did the leaflet inform people about the Denzil Dowell case, it also
allowed them to learn more about the BPP and its stance on self-defense. The Denzil
Dowell case thus proved to be an essential part of the development of the BPP. It both
gave the Panthers national exposure and helped them with the launch of The Black
Panther newspaper. 21
The BPP became increasingly popular as a result of public events such as the
escorting of Betty Shabazz and the Denzil Dowell case. The Panthers benefited greatly
from this newfound popularity, because more and more people became interested in
what they had to say. However, it also attracted the attention of law enforcement
agencies. As the Panthers continued to spread their revolutionary message, local police
forces realized that something had to be done to undermine the efforts of the BPP. One
of the easiest targets turned out to be the weapons that the Panthers carried with them
out in the open. Donald Mulford, a conservative state assemblyman from Oakland,
informed the BPP that he would be introducing a bill into the state legislature that would
make it illegal for them to carry loaded firearms in public. This Mulford Act, also called the
“Panther Bill”, was seen as a violation of the Panthers’ constitutional right to bear arms,
so Newton and Seale decided to go to Sacramento to oppose the bill. On May 2, 1967, a
group of armed Panthers (without Newton, who was still on probation) arrived at the
Sacramento State Capitol to carry across the message that the time had come for blacks
21
Newton, Revolutionary Suicide, 145-152.
Seale, Seize the Time, 134-149.
17 – Niels Haak 3150984
to arm themselves. The media were present in significant numbers, so with the eyes of
the nation upon him, Bobby Seale recited the mandate of the BPP for all to hear. The
group of Panthers was soon arrested by the police, but their message had been heard
throughout the nation. The events at the Sacramento State Capitol attracted a significant
amount of national attention to the BPP. However, as Huey Newton explains in
Revolutionary Suicide, people did not even need to hear the complete message. The
image of the Panthers carrying firearms proved to be enough to convey the right message
to black communities throughout the United States. 22
As the nation was becoming more aware of the message of the BPP, the police
began increasing its activities to undermine the Party. Most Panthers were getting used
to being pulled over by the police for no apparent reason, because the Oakland police
was keeping a database with license plates of cars that belonged to known members of
the BPP. Huey Newton was a frequent victim of this process, seeing as how most cops
wanted to meet the “legendary” Newton face-to-face. One of those cops was John Frey.
In the early morning of October 28, 1967, Officer Frey ordered Newton to pull over his
car. Frey asked Newton some general questions about the car, after which he walked
back to another cop who had just arrived at the scene. According to Newton, the second
officer ordered his passenger, Gene McKinney, to get out of the car and to follow him.
John Frey did the same with Newton, and brought him to the back of the second police
car. At this point, Newton reached for his book of law and told Frey that he had no right
to arrest him. As Newton was opening the book, Frey allegedly told him to “take that
22
Newton, Revolutionary Suicide, 153-159.
18 – Niels Haak 3150984
book and shove it up your ass nigger”, after which he drew his service revolver and shot
Newton in the stomach. 23
It remains unclear what exactly happened in the early morning of October 28,
1967. John Frey turned up dead and Huey Newton lay critically wounded in the hospital.
Newton was charged with first-degree murder, but he insisted that Frey was the one who
shot him first. Herbert Heanes, the second officer at the scene, was also shot, but he
survived. He later testified that Newton and Frey got into a fight, which resulted in
Newton shooting Frey. Having seen this, Heanes decided to shoot Newton, even though
he testified that he did not see Newton carrying a gun. Each side had its own story, which
made it difficult to determine what had happened exactly. The long, drawn-out court case
that followed made it clear that the numbers did not add up. However, the odds were
stacked against Newton. After hearing all of the testimonies, the Alameda County grand
jury sentenced Newton to two to fifteen years in prison for the fatal shooting of John Frey
in September, 1968. 24
The shooting of John Frey and the subsequent conviction of Huey Newton proved
to be one of the most important, if not the most important events in the development of
the BPP. As Hugh Pearson argues in The Shadow of the Panther, the events had two
important consequences: Huey Newton became a national icon, and the BPP became the
nation’s premier symbol of black resistance. 25 This was largely due to the efforts of the
Party itself, however. The other members of the BPP were outraged when they heard of
Newton’s conviction. Eldridge Cleaver therefore came up with a two-pronged plan to set
Newton free: the BPP would hire the best lawyer it could possibly get, Charles R. Garry,
23
Newton, Revolutionary Suicide, 181-187.
Idem, 200-265.
25
Pearson, The Shadow of the Panther, 147.
24
19 – Niels Haak 3150984
and a Free Huey publicity campaign would be set in motion. Cleaver’s plan also led the
BPP to ally itself with the white leftist Peace and Freedom Party (PFP). The Panthers were
thus making important organizational decisions that would decisively affect the future of
the Party. Moreover, the community organized Free Huey campaign once and for all
turned the BPP into a national organization. With Free Huey rallies being held both
nationally and internationally, the BPP had firmly established its name. So, even though
the Party had lost its leader for the time being, it was entering a new period of
unparalleled growth and development. 26
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale could not possibly have foreseen what happened to the
Black Panther Party in little more than a year. The Party went from being a local, Oaklandbased organization with a handful of members to a national organization with an
(inter)national following. There were numerous setbacks, but the Panthers managed to
achieve their goals one way or another. They got people to listen to what they had to say,
and even convinced some of these people to pick up the gun themselves. However, the
BPP’s success story had also attracted some unwanted attention. From 1968 onwards, the
FBI had set its sights on the Black Panther Party.
26
Pearson, The Shadow of the Panther, 147-165.
Booker, “Lumpenization,” 343.
20 – Niels Haak 3150984
Chapter II: COINTELPRO and the Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party knew what it was like to be targeted by law enforcement
agencies. Being pulled over and having one’s vehicle searched more or less became a
daily routine for most Panthers, seeing as how the police kept track of the vehicles that
were often used by Party members. Because of this, the Panthers were always
appropriately prepared for the inevitable confrontation with the police. However, nothing
could have prepared the Black Panther Party for what the FBI had in store for it. Starting
its operations against the BPP in 1968, the FBI had only one goal in mind: “neutralizing”
the Panther.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, as it existed in the 1960s, had come a long way from
its inception in the early twentieth century. At first, the Bureau of Investigation was a
small-scale organization bent on reinforcing the socio-economic status quo. The FBI still
served the same purpose in the 1960s, but thanks to the efforts of its director, J. Edgar
Hoover, it had been transformed into one of the most controversial organizations of the
United States. Under Hoover, the FBI began taking drastic measures against people and
organizations that were deemed to be a threat to the United States. This was made
considerably easier by the passing of legislature such as the Espionage Act (1917),
Sedition Act (1918) and the Smith Act (1940), which made any form of government
subversion easily punishable. Needless to say, the FBI was mostly preoccupied with
21 – Niels Haak 3150984
fighting communism from the 1930s onwards. But with the rise of several new subversive
threats in the late 1950s and 1960s, the FBI had to begin expanding its operations. 27
The FBI’s primary weapon against subversive groups was COINTELPRO. An
acronym for Counter Intelligence Program, COINTELPRO officially began in 1956 as a
series of covert action programs designed to eliminate possible subversive threats. With
this program, the FBI was no longer limited to just intelligence gathering. Instead, the FBI
was authorized to “disrupt” and “neutralize” targeted groups and people. According to
investigations by the Church Committee, COINTELPRO was originally created “in part
because of frustration with Supreme Court rulings limiting the Government’s power to
proceed overtly against dissident groups.” 28 So, instead of overt action, the FBI designed
COINTELPRO to be used as a tool for covert action. 29
COINTELPRO was designed with a number of goals and purposes in mind. First and
foremost, it was designed to protect national security by neutralizing possible threats to
the nation. The creation of COINTELPRO marked an important shift in thinking about
supposed threats, because it was designed to be a domestic counter-intelligence
program. The FBI and the government had focused on domestic subversive groups
before, but not on a grand scale like this. Another purpose of COINTELPRO was the
prevention of violence, both between and by different targets. The program specifically
targeted groups which were believed to have the potential for violence. In order to
dismantle this potential, COINTELPRO aimed to deter recruitment and membership in the
target groups. The goal was thus to prevent violence indirectly, rather than directly.
Furthermore, COINTELPRO shared the FBI’s traditional goal of maintaining and reinforcing
27
Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall, Agents of Repression: The FBI’s Secret Wars Against the Black
Panther Party and the American Indian Movement (South End Press, 1988) 17-36.
28
U.S. Senate, Staff Reports, 3.
29
Idem, 3-4.
22 – Niels Haak 3150984
the socio-economic status quo. According to the reports of the Church Committee, this
goal was never explicitly mentioned anywhere, but looking at the available documents, it
is safe to say that the FBI looked upon itself as the protector of the status quo in the
United States. 30
The FBI was prepared to go to great lengths to enforce the socio-economic status
quo. This meant that the Bureau often relied on extralegal methods to eliminate possible
subversive threats. According to investigations by the Church Committee, COINTELPRO
was at times in clear violation of the First Amendment. A considerable part of all
approved COINTELPRO actions was meant to prevent speaking, teaching, publishing, and
meeting of and by targeted groups and individuals. The FBI’s counter-intelligence
programs were thus clearly violating constitutional rights under the guise of national
security. 31
At the height of its existence, COINTELPRO was divided into five different
programs: the “Communist Party, USA” program (1956-1971); the “Socialist Workers
Party” program (1961-1969); the “White Hate Group” program (1964-1971); the “Black
Nationalist Hate Group” program (1967-1971); and the “New Left” program (1968-1971).
Not surprisingly, the first two programs were part of America’s crusade against
communism. The threat of Soviet infiltration and espionage was still very real in the eyes
of the FBI, so the Bureau spared no effort to counter Soviet subversion. The later
programs were mainly directed at groups which were considered to be part of the same
ideological movement, even though this was not always the case. For example, as the
Church Committee reports note, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC) was labeled as a “Black Nationalist Hate Group”, despite
30
31
U.S. Senate, Staff Reports, 5-7.
Idem, 27-33.
23 – Niels Haak 3150984
the fact that King’s emphasis on Gandhian principles of nonviolence can hardly be seen as
the foundation for a so-called “hate group”. The five main counter-intelligence programs
of the FBI thus consisted of a wide array of targets. 32
The Black Panther Party was not part of the “Black Nationalist Hate Group”
program at first. In its early stages, the program was aimed at organizations such as the
SCLC, SNCC, Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and the Nation of Islam. The purpose of
the program was to disrupt and neutralize these organizations and its members, because
their revolutionary actions and rhetoric made them a threat to the United States
government. In March, 1968, the program was expanded to include new long-term goals:
preventing a coalition of Black Nationalist groups; preventing the rise of a “messiah” who
could unify the Black Nationalist movement; preventing violence on the part of Black
Nationalist groups; discrediting the leaders of Black Nationalist groups; and preventing
the growth of Black Nationalist groups. 33 These long-term goals underline the fact that
the so-called Black Nationalist Hate Groups had become a major concern for the FBI.
However, the greatest concern had yet to come. Starting in September, 1968, the FBI
began focusing its attention on the daily operations of the Black Panther Party. 34
As noted before, the Black Panther Party was not a target of the FBI’s “Black Nationalist
Hate Group” program at first. When the first list of targets was sent out to FBI field offices
across the United States on August 25, 1967, the BPP was still very much a local
organization. Prior to this date, the BPP had received some national attention with the
Denzil Dowell case and its display of force at the Sacramento State Capitol, but apparently
32
U.S. Senate, Staff Reports, 4, 16-27.
Idem, 187.
34
Ibidem.
33
24 – Niels Haak 3150984
these events were not yet important enough to justify the inclusion of the BPP in the FBI
program. When the FBI expanded its program with new long-term goals on March 4,
1968, the BPP was still not listed as one of its targets. By this time, the shooting of John
Frey had placed Huey Newton and the BPP in a national spotlight. However, even though
Newton’s trial quickly turned into a media spectacle, the Black Panther Party was still not
a primary target of COINTELPRO. 35
In September 1968, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover openly declared the Black Panther
Party to be “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country.” In the same
article, published in the New York Times, Hoover said the following about the BPP:
Schooled in the Marxist-Leninist ideology and the teaching of Chinese Communist
leader Mao Tse-tung, its members have perpetrated numerous assaults on police
officers and have engaged in violent confrontations with police throughout the
country. Leaders and representatives of the Black Panther Party travel extensively
all over the United States preaching their gospel of hate and violence not only to
ghetto residents, but to students in college, universities and high schools as well. 36
It is quite clear that Hoover was trying to incriminate the Black Panther Party in the
national media. First, even though it is undeniable that the BPP was often involved in
confrontations with the police, this was in most cases not the Panthers’ own fault. Huey
Newton had always emphasized the fact that the BPP kept its activities within legal
bounds. Every new member was told to operate strictly by law, so that the police would
have no ground to stand on. 37 Needless to say, the Black Panthers were no saints, but
Hoover’s accusation is far from being the truth. BPP members were told to never make
the first move. So, in the case of “violent” confrontation, it is more likely that the police
35
U.S. Senate, Staff Reports, 20-22.
New York Times, September 8, 1968
37
Newton, Revolutionary Suicide, 129.
36
25 – Niels Haak 3150984
assaulted the Black Panthers, instead of the other way around. Furthermore, Hoover was
completely unjustified in suggesting that the BPP was preaching a “gospel of hate and
violence”. The problem at the time was that people only knew the Black Panthers as they
were represented in the media. These people looked at the news and saw AfricanAmericans standing in front of the Sacramento State Capitol wearing black berets and
shotguns. A “gospel of hate and violence” would easily tie into this existing militant
image, so Hoover decided to take the opportunity to publicly denounce the Black Panther
Party in the national media. By doing so, the FBI kept people in the dark about the Party’s
social, community-centered ideology and program.
The question remains why the Black Panther Party all of a sudden became a
primary target of COINTELPRO in late 1968. One obvious answer would be that the BPP
continued to grow throughout the late 1960s. By 1968, with its membership reaching an
estimated 5.000 people, the Black Panther Party had established chapters in different
cities throughout the United States, such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York.
However, this alone could not have been the reason for why Hoover suddenly declared
war on the BPP. Another possible reason could have been the fact that the BPP and SNCC
were planning to merge. SNCC had been a target of the FBI’s counter-intelligence
programs since 1967, so any type of coalition or merger could prove to be a possible
threat to the status quo. In February, 1968, SNCC made clear to the BPP that it was
interested in a joint coalition. SNCC was not as successful anymore as it used to be, so the
BPP’s newfound popularity could provide it with some new opportunities. The Panthers
were interested in a merge, because SNCC’s experience as a movement could provide
them with some much-needed organizational (re-)structuring. Some of SNCC’s prominent
members, such as H. Rap Brown, James Forman, and Stokely Carmichael, were drafted
26 – Niels Haak 3150984
into the BPP after the merger was officially announced, but the seemingly happy marriage
did not last very long. Members of SNCC soon realized that they did not share the BPP’s
preference for armed revolution. The irreconcilable ideological differences between the
two organizations eventually led to a split in August, 1968. 38
There could be a number of explanations for the FBI’s sudden interest in the Black
Panther Party. As the BPP was expanding across the United States, it started to attract
more and more national attention. Events such as the merger with SNCC and Newton’s
murder trial and subsequent conviction in September, 1968 all placed the BPP in a
national spotlight, which seemingly also drew the attention of the FBI. However, it is very
likely that the FBI was already keeping an eye on the BPP ever since it started to become
popular. Hoover and the FBI must have recognized the fact that the ideological
underpinnings of the BPP proved to be a clear threat to the status quo in the United
States. Hoover eventually expressed this belief in September, 1968, marking the BPP as
another Black Nationalist Hate Group. The FBI had set its sights on the Black Panther
Party, and so by July, 1969, the Panthers had become the primary focus of COINTELPRO.
As with the other targets of COINTELPRO, the FBI had one clear goal in mind for the Black
Panther Party: disrupting and neutralizing its community organizing efforts. However, the
FBI’s efforts to achieve this goal proved to be much more drastic for the BPP than for any
of the other targeted organizations. After all, J. Edgar Hoover claimed that the BPP was
“the greatest threat to the internal security of the country”. The FBI therefore designed a
grand strategy which was supposed to bring the BPP down.
38
Pearson, Shadow of the Panther, 150-164.
27 – Niels Haak 3150984
As noted before, one of COINTELPROs main purposes was the prevention of violence both
by and between different targets. By aiming to deter membership and recruitment in the
targeted groups, the FBI hoped that it could indirectly prevent violence. However, this
was not the case for the Black Panther Party. Instead of trying to prevent violence, the FBI
was actively promoting violence between the BPP and other known militant
organizations. According to the Church Committee reports, the FBI was well aware of the
fact that violent power struggles existed between the BPP and these other organizations.
This provided the Bureau with the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.
Moreover, it seems as if the FBI was proud of the violent confrontation it was fostering. In
a FBI memorandum from the San Diego Field Office, it is said that:
Shootings, beatings, and a high degree of unrest continues to prevail in the ghetto
area of southeast San Diego. Although no specific counterintelligence action can
be credited with contributing to this overall situation, it is felt that a substantial
amount of the unrest is directly attributable to this program. 39
So, not only was the FBI actively involved in the promotion of violence between wellknown militant organizations, it also took pride in what it was doing. Considering the fact
that the main goal of the FBI’s counter-intelligence programs was to maintain the status
quo in the United States, it would make sense for the FBI to feel completely justified
about what it was doing. However, being proud of the fact that US citizens are killing one
another is something different. It goes to show that the FBI was prepared to cross legal
boundaries in its conflict with the BPP. 40
39
Memorandum from San Diego Field Office to FBI Headquarters, 9/18/1969, 2.
U.S. Senate, Staff Reports, 189-195.
Austin, Up Against the Wall, 224-239.
40
28 – Niels Haak 3150984
Besides trying to foster conflict between several targeted organizations, the FBI was also
aiming to foster conflict within the BPP itself. By trying to induce distrust and paranoia
within the ranks of an organization, the FBI could easily destroy any such organization.
This was even more so the case for the BPP, because the organizational leadership of the
Party was continually being disturbed by the frequent arrests and convictions
orchestrated by the FBI. One of the most significant convictions in this case was Huey
Newton’s, because he was considered to be both the practical and spiritual leader of the
BPP. While Newton was in jail, the FBI stepped up its efforts to fracture the BPP from
within. Even though most of the BPP’s prominent members had been or had become
good friends, their friendship was severely strained by COINTELPRO actions. This was
especially the case for Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver. Newton and Cleaver had both
developed different conceptions of the ideological future of the BPP. Newton believed
that the BPP had to put down the gun and had to start focusing more on the community
programs, whereas Cleaver still advocated the need for violent revolution. The ideological
differences between the two eventually led to a split within the ranks of the BPP. The
Party became divided in a pro-Newton faction, who advocated a moderate ideology, and
a pro-Cleaver faction, who advocated a more radical ideology. Recognizing this conflict,
the FBI initiated a program in March, 1970, which was supposed to drive a permanent
wedge between Newton and Cleaver. Newton was still in jail at the time, and Cleaver had
fled to Algeria because he had violated his parole in the United States. So, with both of
these men being away from the BPP’s day-to-day operations, the FBI could easily begin to
drive the two further apart by spreading false rumors and information on their behalf.
The Newton-Cleaver rift was but one of the ways in which the FBI attempted to pit
prominent members of the BPP against each other. However, as will be discussed in the
29 – Niels Haak 3150984
next chapter, this particular conflict proved to be of great importance for the future of
the BPP. 41
The FBI furthermore went to great lengths to undermine public support for the
BPP. Seeing as how the BPP was focused on organizing the community, it was only natural
for the FBI to try and turn the community against the Panthers. One of the Bureau’s
primary targets in this context was the BPP’s “Free Breakfast for School Children
Program”, which was set up in November, 1968. The Free Breakfast Program was the very
first survival program that was implemented by the Party. As the name already suggests,
the purpose of the program was to provide kids with breakfast which they would
otherwise probably not get. The concept was relatively simple, but it nevertheless helped
the community to meet some of its daily needs. Numbers suggest that the Free Breakfast
Program was serving an estimated 50.000 children in 45 cities across the United States. 42
Needless to say, this program, and many of the other survival programs implemented by
the BPP, made the Party incredibly popular among the people. It is therefore no surprise
that the FBI tried to undermine the BPP’s community organizing efforts by disrupting
these programs. In the case of the Free Breakfast Program, the FBI distributed false
letters and cartoons among the stores and organizations that supported the program in
order to get them to withdraw their support. For example, these letters and cartoons
would suggest to parents that the BPP was serving their children diseased food. If that did
not have the desired effect, the FBI would sometimes send tactical units to a location
41
U.S. Senate, Staff Reports, 198-207.
Ward Churchill, “’To Disrupt, Discredit, Destroy’: The FBI’s Secret War Against the Black Panther Party,” in
Liberation, Imagination, and the Black Panther Party: A New Look at the Panthers and their Legacy, ed.
Kathleen Cleaver et al. (New York: Routledge, 2001) 11.
42
30 – Niels Haak 3150984
where free breakfast was being served to simply scare away the children, ruin the food,
and destroy the building. 43
Undermining support for the BPP was also done via the media. On the one hand,
the FBI attempted to prevent the publication of articles by the BPP and its members in
order to prevent them from expressing their views in public. The most important tool for
the BPP to express its views was its newspaper, The Black Panther. The FBI therefore tried
to come up with all sorts of ideas to both disrupt the production and distribution of the
newspaper. On the other hand, the FBI could manipulate the media so that they would
publish stories that were unfavorable to the BPP. By doing so, the FBI hoped that it could
destroy, or at the very least damage, the Black Panther Party’s public image.
44
The FBI deployed a wide range of tactics in its war against the Black Panther Party. Some,
if not most, of these tactics would have been labeled as extralegal methods, because the
FBI was overstepping the boundaries of what it was legally allowed to do. However,
because the BPP was, in the eyes of the FBI, a clear threat to the status quo in the United
States, the Bureau was prepared to cross these boundaries.
The FBI’s COINTELPRO tactics can be divided into a number of categories. First of
all, the FBI relied heavily on manipulating information. By fabricating and distributing
false information, the FBI hoped to foster tensions both within the BPP and between the
BPP and like-minded organizations. One of the most commonly used techniques was the
fabrication of fake letters. The FBI would send a fake letter from one Party member to the
other in order to drive a wedge between the two. This specific technique was mainly
directed against the Party’s elite, because distrust could easily destroy an organization
43
44
Churchill, “To Disrupt, Discredit, Destroy,” 11-13.
U.S. Senate, Staff Reports, 208-220.
31 – Niels Haak 3150984
from within. With Huey Newton behind bars, the FBI took the opportunity to sow seeds
of distrust within the ranks of the BPP. Furthermore, the Bureau also relied on the
distribution of false information on behalf of the BPP with the intention of misrepresenting its goals and objectives. On the one hand, the FBI used this technique to
foster inter-party tensions. The preferred method in this case was the production and
distribution of cartoons, or rather caricatures, which depicted one of the targeted
organizations in a degrading fashion. On the other hand, the FBI also used this technique
to discredit the BPP in the national media. According to the Church Committee reports,
the FBI had assembled a list of “friendly” media sources throughout the years, which
agreed to both publish unfavorable articles about the BPP and leak derogatory
information about its members. The FBI could thus ask its media sources to publish false
information about the BPP in order to discredit the Party in the national media. 45
Another category of COINTELPRO tactics could be labeled as the FBI’s efforts to
induce paranoia within the Black Panther Party. The FBI maintained an impressive
network of electronic surveillance, which was not only used for intelligence gathering in
itself, but also to make the BPP aware of the fact that the FBI was keeping an eye on its
every move. As with distrust, paranoia could potentially wreak havoc in both the upper
and lower ranks of the BPP. One of the most commonly used techniques to induce
paranoia was the so-called practice of “snitch-jacketing”, or “bad-jacketing”. “Snitchjacketing” refers to the practice of discrediting a Party member by suggesting that he or
she was an informant. The FBI mainly used this technique to eliminate the BPP’s
organizational leadership. “Snitch-jacketing” soon became very popular among FBI
agents, because the BPP was relentless in its treatment of informants. If one was
45
Churchill and Vander Wall, Agents of Repression, 37-53.
U.S. Senate, Staff Reports, 34-40.
32 – Niels Haak 3150984
suspected of being an informant, the punishment could range from simply being expelled
from the Party to nearly being beaten to death. This goes to show just how much of a
problem informants had become in the Black Panther Party. 46
Infiltration of the Black Panther Party by FBI field agents is part of the third and
last category of COINTELPRO tactics that will be discussed here. Besides the distribution
of false information and the inducement of paranoia within the BPP, the FBI also utilized
more “practical” tactics. For example, as mentioned before, the FBI began harassing
Panthers by arresting them on minor, or even false, charges. These arrests were not only
meant to simply harass the BPP, but also to keep its members incarcerated, thereby
draining the Party’s already scarce resources. Furthermore, the FBI made widespread use
of one of its oldest tactics: infiltrating and destroying an organization from within. The FBI
began the so-called “Ghetto Informant Program” in 1967 as a response to the increasing
violence of the mid-1960s. According to Ward Churchill, an estimated 3300 informants
were active when the FBI began its COINTELPRO actions against the BPP in 1968. Of those
3300 informants, at least 67 were active within the BPP in 1969. 47 These informants
gathered intelligence, spread false information, and helped induce paranoia within the
ranks of the BPP. Besides the “regular” informants, the FBI also made frequent use of
agent provocateurs. This type of informant is especially interesting, because his goal was
to engage in criminal activities, which could then be attributed to the targeted
organization and its members. An agent provocateur was also much harder to detect
within the ranks of the Party, because their participation in criminal activities could be
perceived as a sign of dedication and loyalty. 48
46
Churchill and Vander Wall, Agents of Repression, 39-40, 49-51.
Churchill, “To Disrupt, Discredit, Destroy,” 18-19.
48
Churchill and Vander Wall, Agents of Repression, 44-48.
47
33 – Niels Haak 3150984
In light of this discussion, there is one more tactic that needs to be discussed. Even
though the FBI has always denied it, it is almost certain that the Bureau was involved in
the assassinations of several BPP members. According to Ward Churchill, the FBI
concealed its own involvement in these assassinations by using contract personnel,
infiltrators, and even police surrogates to carry out the actual killings. 49 The FBI was
known to use some extralegal methods in its counterintelligence programs, but
assassinating people outright is an entirely different thing. Needless to say, the FBI could
not just go around killing Panthers whenever it pleased, because it would both draw
suspicion and could possible lead to an all-out civil war between the BPP and authorities.
However, the FBI’s involvement in the assassinations of members of the Black Panther
Party is the ultimate proof that the Bureau was free to pursue its goals in any way it saw
fit, whether it was legal or illegal.
The best way to illustrate the FBI’s mode of operation and its rationalization of
COINTELPRO is to give an example of a high-profile case in which both the Black Panther
Party and the FBI were involved. The case that will be discussed here is the assassination
of Fred Hampton. Fred Hampton joined the BPP’s Chicago chapter in the beginning of
1968. Being a natural born leader, Hampton managed to climb the ranks of the Party
rather quickly. His rise to prominence was stimulated by the organizational problems
within the BPP, which were heavily influenced by the relentless assaults of the FBI. The
Bureau, in the mean time, had taken note of Hampton’s rapid ascension within the BPP,
because Hampton was known to be a skillful organizer and mediator. Recognizing his
potential, the FBI got William O’Neal, a small-time criminal, to infiltrate the BPP as a
49
Churchill, “To Disrupt, Discredit, Destroy,” 28.
34 – Niels Haak 3150984
counter-intelligence agent. O’Neal managed to become Hampton’s personal bodyguard,
which placed him in a position of considerable power. The FBI instructed him to use this
position to stimulate conflict between the BPP and other “radical” organizations in
Chicago. Meanwhile, the FBI itself would try to foster inter-party conflict by distributing
derogatory cartoons in the Panthers’ name. 50
O’Neal quickly assumed the role of agent provocateur within the ranks of the
BPP’s Chicago chapter. He pressed other members to engage in criminal activities, to
punish alleged informants, and to arm themselves to the teeth. By doing so, the FBI
would have more opportunities to arrest and convict Panthers for illegal activities.
Meanwhile, Fred Hampton was working hard to establish community survival programs
and police patrols in the black communities of Chicago. In order to be closer to the BPP
headquarters in Chicago, Hampton rented a new apartment together with his fiancé.
O’Neal relayed this information to the FBI, claiming that Hampton’s apartment was a
meeting place for Panthers and a storage facility for their weapons. With this information,
and the news that Hampton would be appointed to the BPP’s Central Committee, the FBI
realized that stronger measures had to be taken to sabotage Hampton’s rise to national
prominence. 51
William O ‘Neal met with several FBI agents in mid-November, 1969, to discuss
plans for a raid on Hampton’s apartment. O’Neal had been inside of the apartment, so he
was able to share with the FBI the exact lay-out of the entire apartment. On the morning
of December 4, 1969, a unit of fourteen men rushed into Hampton’s apartment, shooting
everything on sight. Fred Hampton, who was still asleep, was shot twice in the head at
point blank range. Two other Panthers were dead as well; three others survived, who
50
51
Churchill and Vander Wall, Agents of Repression, 63-66.
Idem, 67-69.
35 – Niels Haak 3150984
were then arrested for attempted murder on the police forces that raided the apartment.
After the raid was over, a teletype was sent to the FBI headquarters to inform J. Edgar
Hoover that Hampton and two other Panthers had been killed; the raid was proclaimed to
be “successful”. 52 In a press conference, the FBI defended its actions by claiming that the
deaths of Hampton and the other Panthers were “justifiable homicides”. According to
official police reports, the Panthers were the ones who initiated the attack, so the raiders
merely acted out of self-defense. Photographs taken at the scene were supposed to
support this theory, but several reporters indicated that the photographs were
fabricated. However, despite this new evidence, the case of Fred Hampton remained
closed. The FBI did have to clarify its involvement in the Hampton affair during several
Grand Jury proceedings, but a deal with Cook County’s State’s Attorney Edward V.
Hanrahan ensured that neither the FBI nor the police would be held responsible for what
had happened in Fred Hampton’s apartment. 53
The story of Fred Hampton underlines the ways in which the FBI persecuted the
BPP. They infiltrated the Party, stimulated inter-party conflict, pressed other Panthers to
engage in criminal activities, and eventually assassinated Fred Hampton in his own
apartment. They did so because Hampton was a talented leader who had the potential to
effectively organize the black community in Chicago. That specific talent made him a
threat to the status quo in the United States, and so Hampton became one of the primary
targets of COINTELPRO. There are plenty of reports and memorandums available which
clearly indicate that the FBI was involved in the assassination of Fred Hampton, but, at
the time, it was relatively easy to convince people of the fact that the Black Panthers had
initiated the attack. The FBI and the media used the violent image of the BPP to twist the
52
53
Churchill, “To Disrupt, Discredit, Destroy,” 29.
Churchill and Vander Wall, Agents of Repression, 70-77.
36 – Niels Haak 3150984
facts of what had really happened on December 4, 1969. As a result, nobody would hear
about Hampton’s efforts to provide the black communities in Chicago with free breakfast
and free health care. Instead, Hampton would be remembered as just another casualty in
the fight against black revolutionaries.
All of the FBI’s counter-intelligence programs and activities were officially suspended on
April 27, 1971, due to security reasons. However, it is uncertain whether COINTELPROtype activities continued afterwards. As the Church Committee reports note, the
document that announced the discontinuation of all counter-intelligence programs also
notes that “in exceptional circumstances where it is considered counter-intelligence
action is warranted, recommendations should be submitted to the Bureau under the
individual case caption to which it pertains.” 54 Counter-intelligence operations thus might
have continued after the program was officially terminated in 1971. The Committee
actually discovered several cases in which COINTELPRO-type activities were carried out
post-1971, but it seems unlikely that the FBI’s counter-intelligence programs would ever
return to the forefront of its operations again. Nevertheless, the future of the FBI’s
counter-intelligence activities always remained a grey area. 55
54
55
U.S. Senate, Staff Reports, 13.
Idem, 13-15.
37 – Niels Haak 3150984
Chapter III: The Demise of the Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party reached its peak popularity in the period of 1968-70. Even
though Huey Newton was in jail and the FBI was continuing its relentless assaults on the
Party and its members, the BPP managed to establish a foothold in most major cities
throughout the United States. With Party membership reaching an all-time high of 10.000
in 1969, the BPP had enough reason to be cautiously optimistic about its future
prospects. However, trouble was brewing underneath the surface. With serious
ideological differences developing within the Party, and with the FBI breathing down its
neck, the BPP slowly began crumbling under the pressure.
The first internal problems of the Black Panther Party developed as a result of the
conviction of Huey Newton in September, 1968. With Newton in jail, someone else had to
take control of the Party. Eldridge Cleaver was the ideal candidate, but he soon fled to
Algeria after a judge decided that Cleaver had violated his parole. With both Newton and
Cleaver being out of the picture, Chief of Staff David Hilliard took charge of the BPP.
Under Hilliard’s command, a clear split began to develop within the BPP between the
party elite and the rank-and-file members. These rank-and-file members basically carried
out all the day-to-day operations of the BPP, such as the distribution of The Black Panther
and the organization of local survival programs, while the party elite took care of the
larger organizational issues. The BPP relied heavily on its rank-and-file members, so
Hilliard was concerned when it became clear that the rank-and-file was dissatisfied with
the BPP’s new leadership. Some of the members felt that Hilliard was favoring his friends
in the party elite, and that he was somewhat too harsh in disciplining (alleged) dissidents.
38 – Niels Haak 3150984
Furthermore, according to Hugh Pearson, Hilliard and his friends within the BPP became
increasingly corrupt. A significant part of the Party’s funds began disappearing, criticism
on party leadership was no longer allowed, and women were increasingly being
disrespected and abused. 56 However, as Curtis J. Austin argues, Hilliard can and should
not be blamed for all of the BPP’s problems. It is important to remember that the BPP had
no time to adjust to its newfound popularity and rapid growth. Furthermore, with
Newton in jail and the FBI tracing the BPP’s every move, it was no easy task for Hilliard to
get the Party back on the right track. 57
Most Panthers believed, or rather hoped, that all of the BPP’s problems would
vanish when Huey Newton would once again take control of the Party. While he was in
jail, Newton had become a national icon as a result of Eldridge Cleaver’s Free Huey
campaign. He was no longer just the public face of the BPP; he had achieved a mythical
status among the people in the black communities. So, when Newton received a new trial
in May, 1970, those people were rooting for his release. The retrial made clear that a lot
of mistakes had been made in regards to Newton’s conviction. Thus, after having served
only two years of his fifteen year sentence, Huey Newton was finally released from prison
in August, 1970. However, what was supposed to be a glorious return to power, turned
out to be a critical turning point in the life of the Black Panther Party. 58
The earliest signs of decline became visible after Newton’s release from prison.
The BPP had not exactly flourished under Hilliard’s leadership, so Newton had to get the
Party back on track once again. His first course of action was to strengthen the
community survival programs, because Newton had become convinced that the BPP had
56
Pearson, The Shadow of the Panther, 173-205.
Austin, Up Against the Wall, 294-296.
58
Ollie A. Johnson III, “Explaining the Demise of the Black Panther Party: The Role of Internal Factors,” in
The Black Panther Party Reconsidered, ed. Charles E. Jones (Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1998) 398-399.
57
39 – Niels Haak 3150984
to put down the gun in order to focus more on the community and its needs. However, as
was also discussed in the previous chapter, Eldridge Cleaver held different ideas. He
believed that the BPP had to lead the community in violent revolution. As Ollie A. Johnson
argues in “Explaining the Demise of the Black Panther Party,” the Newton-Cleaver rift was
exemplary of the intra-party conflict that would contribute to the demise of the BPP.
Johnson also argues that the ideological disagreements between Newton and Cleaver
represented a deeper schism within the BPP. 59 Both local and state chapters of the BPP
lamented the fact that they were not properly represented in the Party’s Central
Committee, even though they were required to make sizeable contributions to the
national Party funds. Some of these chapters also disagreed with Newton about the
proper course of action for the BPP, just like Cleaver did. In response to these issues,
Newton began expelling members of the party elite who he claimed were “enemies of the
people”. Most Central Committee members, including Eldridge Cleaver, were not
informed of Newton’s actions, so they demanded that the expelled members be
reinstated. For some strange reason, Newton and Cleaver eventually decided to discuss
the internal issues of the BPP during a television program on February 26, 1971. The
discussion soon turned heated as Newton and Cleaver began arguing and expelling one
another from the BPP. It turned out that the ideological differences between the two had
driven them too far apart. Fortunately for Newton, the initial damage done to the BPP
was very limited, with just Cleaver and a handful of his supporters defecting. But when
Robert Webb and Samuel Napier, two respected members of the BPP, were killed as a
59
Johnson, “Explaining the Demise of the Black Panther Party,” 401.
40 – Niels Haak 3150984
result of the Newton-Cleaver rift, other Panthers had had enough. The BPP lost
approximately thirty to forty percent of its membership due to this intra-party conflict. 60
Newton and Seale managed to regain control of the BPP after the whole affair
with Eldridge Cleaver. Even though the BPP had been severely weakened, its influence
had barely been diminished. With Cleaver and his radical faction out of the Party, Newton
could begin to shift the BPP towards a more community-centered approach. This meant
that the Party would be putting down the gun, and that it would begin to focus more on
cooperation and reconciliation within the black communities. Newton realized that the
Party’s rhetoric of violence had estranged a lot of people throughout the years, and that it
also created issues within the BPP itself. It was therefore time for a change of direction.
Furthermore, in a bold attempt to prevent any further form of intra-party conflict,
Newton suggested that the Party should close all of its chapters outside of Oakland and
focus its resources and activities in the Bay area. By doing so, Newton believed that
Oakland could become an example of what the black community was capable of if its
members cooperated with another. However, his best friend, Bobby Seale, rejected the
idea. He was convinced that the national headquarters did not have the required
resources to sustain the lives of hundreds of members within Oakland itself, and,
furthermore, he argued that the Party could not just close down all of its outside chapters
while they still had survival programs running throughout the United States. Most Party
members outside of Oakland were not prepared to give up their lives and move away
from their homes either. However, after weeks of debate, the Party’s Central Committee
decided that all outside chapters would be closed and dismantled within the year (1972).
60
Johnson, “Explaining the Demise of the Black Panther Party,” 399-403.
Austin, Up Against the Wall, 297-306.
41 – Niels Haak 3150984
This was a major personal victory for Newton, but the Party suffered. Members who were
not prepared to move to Oakland simply left the Party en masse. 61
The BPP’s centralization of operations in Oakland was, according to Ollie A.
Johnson, the first step in a series of strategic organizational mistakes. 62 With the closing
of all Party chapters outside of Oakland, a significant amount of power was concentrated
in the hands of Huey Newton. After the Party had firmly established itself in Oakland,
Newton and Seale began focusing their attention on local politics. They decided that Seale
would be running for mayor and Elaine Brown, the Party’s new minister of information
(Eldridge Cleaver’s original position), would be running for a seat in the city council in
1973. Both the party leadership and the rank-and-file members invested a significant
amount of time, energy, and money into the political campaigns of Seale and Brown.
However, despite their efforts, both of them lost the elections by a narrow margin. This
electoral defeat had a devastating effect on the BPP. Having invested so much resources
and energy into these elections, many Panthers were severely disappointed by the
outcome and resigned from the Party. 63
Both the centralization of operations in Oakland and the election of 1973 proved
to be critical organizational mistakes. As Ollie A. Johnson argues, the BPP steadily declined
in “size, prestige, and effectiveness” because of these mistakes. However, besides this
and intra-party conflict, Johnson notes another factor which contributed to the demise of
the Black Panther Party: authoritarianism. 64 The rise of authoritarianism within the BPP
can arguably be traced back to the leadership of David Hilliard. As mentioned before,
61
Pearson, The Shadow of the Panther, 233-236.
Johnson, “Explaining the Demise of the Black Panther Party,” 403-405.
62
Idem, 403.
63
Idem, 405-406.
64
Idem, 406.
42 – Niels Haak 3150984
Hilliard showed signs of favoritism towards his fellow members in the party elite, which
sharpened distinctions between the ranks of the BPP. These issues were addressed by
Newton after he was released from prison in 1970, but, at the same time, he himself
began showing signs of authoritarianism as well. This was largely due to the closing of all
Party chapters outside of Oakland. With all of the BPP’s operations centered in Oakland,
Newton decided to centralize all the money that was coming into the Party. This basically
meant that nobody was able to touch the money anymore, except for Newton and the
other members of the Party’s Central Committee. To make matters even worse, Newton
began using some of the money for his own personal interests as well. Furthermore,
Newton was showing signs of increasingly violent behavior towards anyone who
disrespected him or the Party. He was known to physically assault other Party members
at this point in time, which alienated a lot of people. Newton’s erratic behavior more
than likely was the result of a serious drug addiction. Ever since he had been released
from jail, Newton resorted to the use of drugs and alcohol to deal with his newfound
popularity. Thus, with power being concentrated in the hands of Newton, who was
showing increasingly erratic behavior, many Panthers were beginning to feel alienated
from the BPP. It was not just the rank-and-file members who felt that way, however.
Bobby Seale resigned from the BPP in 1974 after he and Newton had had a major
argument. Seeing as how Seale had been Newton’s friend and a prominent member of
the Party for a long time, other members quickly realized how serious the problems must
have been. As a result, many Panthers followed Seale’s example and left the Party. 65
The Black Panther Party officially existed until 1982, but it had lost all its influence
long before that. Power abuse, financial mismanagement, and violent behavior continued
65
Pearson, The Shadow of the Panther, 236, 251-268.
Johnson, “Explaining the Demise of the Black Panther Party,” 406-408.
43 – Niels Haak 3150984
to plague the BPP after 1974. Newton had fled to Cuba in August of that year to escape
several criminal charges, but that did not help the Party either. The BPP’s new leader,
Elaine Brown, ran the Party in almost the same way as Newton did, relying on violence
and intimidation to get things done. As a result, the BPP dabbled in local Oakland affairs,
until it finally died an embarrassing death with the closing of its last community-organized
project in 1982. 66
Internal factors clearly played a significant role in the demise of the Black Panther Party,
but these factors only constitute one side of the story. While the BPP was actively trying
to solve its internal issues, the FBI was operating in the background, aggravating these
internal issues and assaulting the Party externally. Thus, in order to get a balanced
account of the demise of the BPP, it is necessary to consider the influence and
effectiveness of COINTELPRO as well.
The FBI’s efforts to exacerbate internal tensions within the BPP were based, for a
large part, on the Bureau’s ability to induce distrust and paranoia. As was discussed in the
previous chapter, the FBI had a wide array of tactics available to it to sow seeds of distrust
within the ranks of the BPP. The use of informants was especially popular in this regard,
because the BPP did not quite know how to deal with these informants effectively. What
is particularly interesting about the use of informants is that the anticipated presence of
infiltrators within an organization is sometimes enough to create suspicion and paranoia.
As David J. Garrow explains in “FBI Political Harassment and FBI Historiography”, the
question is whether the actual presence of informants is more damaging to an
66
Johnson, “Explaining the Demise of the Black Panther Party,” 407-408.
44 – Niels Haak 3150984
organization than the expectation of informants’ presence. 67 In the case of the Black
Panther Party, it seems that the expected presence of informants within the Party caused
considerably more damage than the actual operations carried out by these informants.
These operations were mainly meant to assist the FBI in confiscating weapons,
incarcerating BPP members, ruining the Party’s public image, and exacerbating both intraand inter-party conflict. Informants and agent provocateurs would go out of their way to
foster conflict and make the BPP look bad in the eyes of the general public. Furthermore,
if needed, their actions could also have more far-reaching consequences, as was the case
with the assassination of Fred Hampton. Thus, from a practical point of view, the actual
impact of informants operating within the BPP should not be underestimated. However,
the expected presence of informants seems to have affected the BPP in a more
fundamental way. It was explained before that the BPP’s organizational leadership was
relatively unstable because of the FBI’s harassment and Huey Newton’s conviction. When
David Hilliard took charge, he arguably did so with a new sense of authority. Hilliard and
the BPP quickly figured out that informants were operating within the Party’s ranks, so
they did not hesitate to take swift action against alleged informants. If a Party member
was suspected of being an informant, he or she would be expelled instantly. The expected
presence of informants thus created a climate of paranoia in which Panthers became
more hesitant to speak their minds, because they did not want to risk the possibility of
being labeled an informant. This had to do with the fact that the party elite began using
the expected presence of informants within the BPP as an excuse to get rid of dissidents
who openly criticized the BPP and its leadership. 68 By labeling these dissidents as
67
David J. Garrow, “FBI Political Harassment and FBI Historiography: Analyzing Informants and Measuring
the Effects,” The Public Historian 4 (Autumn, 1988) 17.
68
Pearson, The Shadow of the Panther, 173-204.
45 – Niels Haak 3150984
informants, the BPP could blame the FBI for its internal issues. One could therefore argue
that this situation helped lay the foundation for the development of authoritarianism and
power abuse within the BPP. The expected presence of informants within the ranks of the
BPP indirectly widened the gap between the party elite and the rank-and-file members.
With the knowledge that informants were at large within the Party, the leadership of the
BPP invested itself with the power to expel people as it saw fit in order to protect the
Party from any form of dissention. Even though the party elite might have been
convinced that this was the right thing to do at the time, it would eventually do the BPP
more harm than good.
The FBI soon learned that the Black Panther Party was cracking down on internal
dissention. Fostering intra-party conflict had always been one of COINTELPRO-BPP’s main
goals, but now the FBI had all the more reason for focusing on the promotion of
dissention within the BPP. In October, 1968, J. Edgar Hoover directed his field offices to
start exploiting any existing tensions between local and national leaders in order to
promote factionalism within the Party. For example, the FBI would attempt to create a rift
between the national BPP headquarters and local chapters by sending out anonymous
letters that questioned the loyalty of these chapters. This would often create some
tension, but it usually had no lasting effects. However, there is one well-known occasion
in which the FBI managed to exacerbate internal tensions to the point where factional
differences had become irreconcilable. 69
The FBI’s involvement in the Newton-Cleaver rift was one of COINTELPROs most
successful programs. By September, 1969, informants had notified the FBI of the fact that
ideological differences were developing within the BPP, primarily between Huey Newton
69
Austin, Up Against the Wall, 322.
46 – Niels Haak 3150984
and Eldridge Cleaver. Realizing the potential destructiveness of this dispute, the FBI
instructed several field offices to exacerbate these differences in any way possible. 70 The
Bureau began by sending out an anonymous letter to Cleaver in Algeria, which stated that
David Hilliard and several BPP leaders in California were plotting to undercut Cleaver’s
influence. In response to this letter, Cleaver allegedly expelled three international
representatives from the Party. Needless to say, this was exactly the kind of response that
the FBI was hoping to provoke. The Bureau therefore sent a new letter to David Hilliard,
which suggested that he do something about Cleaver before it was too late. This kind of
fabricated correspondence was typical of the ways in which the FBI tried to play the
Panthers off against each other. The Bureau knew that Cleaver was no longer residing in
the United States, so this was the perfect opportunity to create factionalism in the party
elite. Unfortunately for the Bureau, however, both Cleaver and Hilliard had become
aware of the fact that the letters were forgeries, so they managed to reconcile their
differences before any serious damage was done. 71
The FBI clearly failed to drive Cleaver and Hilliard apart, but it had more tricks up
its sleeve. When Huey Newton was released from jail in August, 1970, the FBI got one of
its informants to distribute a forged BPP directive in which Newton’s leadership was
openly being questioned. Realizing that Cleaver and Hilliard had reconciled their
differences, the Bureau would now attempt to create a rift between the two of them and
Newton. This was made considerably easier by the fact that the ideological differences
between Cleaver and Newton had already split the BPP into different factions. The FBI
therefore only needed to exacerbate the pre-existing tensions between the two. The
70
Churchill, “To Disrupt, Discredit, Destroy,” 31.
U.S. Senate, Staff Reports, 200-201.
Churchill, “To Disrupt, Discredit, Destroy,” 30-31.
71
47 – Niels Haak 3150984
Bureau’s directive stressed “the leadership and strength of David Hilliard and Eldridge
Cleaver while intimating Huey Newton is useful only as a drawing card.” 72 As we now
know, Newton did not take lightly to people challenging his authority. He therefore began
expelling Panthers who were aligned with Cleaver, believing that they were plotting to kill
him. This convinced the FBI of the fact that Newton was becoming increasingly paranoid.
Claiming that he was close to having a mental breakdown, the FBI decided to intensify its
counter-intelligence activities against Newton. 73
While Newton continued to expel people from the BPP whom he considered to be
“enemies of the people” (i.e. people aligned with Cleaver), the FBI intensified its actions.
In February, 1971, the Bureau asked its field offices to come up with a program to disrupt
the relationship between local BPP chapters and the national headquarters. The FBI was
aware of the fact that Newton was expelling prominent members of the BPP, so it
believed that this was the perfect opportunity to further disrupt the Party. All sorts of
letters were sent out by FBI field offices, openly challenging the leadership of both
Newton and Cleaver, and warning both of them of the possibility of violence being used
against them. Shortly thereafter, the two of them engaged in their infamous discussion
on live television, which marked the final confrontation in their relationship. While
witnessing these events, the FBI realized that its counter-intelligence program had
succeeded. Therefore, on March 25, 1971, the FBI’s headquarters sent out a letter to its
field offices in Chicago and San Francisco, which stated that “the differences between
Newton and Cleaver now appear to be irreconcilable, no further counterintelligence
72
73
U.S. Senate, Staff Reports, 202.
Churchill, “To Disrupt, Discredit, Destroy,” 31-32.
48 – Niels Haak 3150984
activity in this regard will be undertaken at this time and now new targets must be
established.” 74
The events surrounding the Newton-Cleaver rift dealt a huge blow to the BPP and
its membership. By constantly aggravating the conflict between Newton and Cleaver, the
FBI turned factionalism into one of the BPP’s most divisive and damaging internal issues.
Not only did the Party lose a significant amount of community support because of intraparty conflict and the violence that was associated with it, but it also lost support of some
of its most dedicated members. These members rightfully believed that intra-party
conflict was destroying the BPP from within. They had become convinced that the Party
was no longer in a position to lead the revolution. Many of them therefore decided to
leave the BPP for other organizations, such as the Black Liberation Army (BLA). The BLA
was founded by Cleaver loyalists, and so it was a very suitable option for those who were
disillusioned with both the internecine warfare and the new ideological course of the BPP.
The Newton-Cleaver rift, which was severely aggravated by the FBI, thus struck at the
core of the BPP, leaving the Party in a shambles for months. 75
The story of the Newton-Cleaver rift is worth telling in detail, because it is the best
example of how internal and external forces coalesced in the demise of the Black Panther
Party. It is obvious that the FBI’s counter-intelligence activities exacerbated the preexisting tensions between Newton and Cleaver. The Bureau recognized the ideological
differences between the two, and used this as an opportunity to fully exploit the internal
tensions within the BPP. However, it would be wrong to attribute the split between
Newton and Cleaver to the FBI’s efforts alone. The same goes for internal issues as well.
The Newton-Cleaver rift shows that the internal and external forces affecting the BPP had
74
75
U.S. Senate, Staff Reports, 205-207.
Pearson, The Shadow of the Panther, 231-233.
49 – Niels Haak 3150984
a mutually reinforcing effect on one another. The growth of internal tensions within the
BPP led the FBI to increase its counter-intelligence activities, and this increase of
activities, in turn, accelerated the growth of these internal tensions. This vicious cycle
continued up to the point where the situation began to spiral out of control. In the case of
the Newton-Cleaver rift, this occurred with their discussion on television, which sealed
Cleaver’s fate. Thus, in the end it was the combination of FBI counter-intelligence
activities and intra-party conflict that drove Newton and Cleaver apart.
The FBI’s efforts to damage the Black Panther Party from within operated in tandem with
its efforts to damage the Party from the outside. For example, the FBI was known to
actively promote violence between the BPP and other militant organizations in an effort
to stimulate inter-party conflict. One of these “violent” conflicts existed between the BPP
and a group called United Slaves (US). As the BPP began establishing a foothold in the
major cities of California, it often came into conflict with US and its leader, Ron Karenga.
Karenga was a former member of the Afro-American Association, just like Newton. Even
though they were friends in college, ideological differences had driven them apart. After
he left the AAA, Karenga became a strong proponent of cultural nationalism. He believed
that the struggle of the black community was essentially a race struggle. This conflicted
with the idea of Newton and the BPP, who defined the struggle in terms of class. These
basic ideological differences created animosity between the BPP and US, and would
therefore make a clash between the two organizations inevitable. 76
J. Edgar Hoover had already noted back in November, 1968, that major differences
existed between the BPP and US. He stated that:
76
Seale, Seize the time, 23.
50 – Niels Haak 3150984
In order to fully capitalize upon BPP and US differences as well as to exploit all
avenues of creating further dissention in the ranks of the BPP, recipient offices are
instructed to submit imaginative and hard-hitting counterintelligence measures
aimed at crippling the BPP. 77
This counter-intelligence program effectively began after a meeting between the BPP and
US on January 17, 1969, got out of hand. The two organizations were arguing about who
would become the director of the Black Studies program at UCLA. During the meeting,
several US members drew guns and shot Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter and Jon Huggins,
two leaders of the BPP’s Los Angeles chapter. After the shoot-out, the FBI began sending
out derogatory cartoons to local BPP offices which indicated to the BPP “that the US
organization feels that they are ineffectual, inadequate, and riddled with graft and
corruption.” 78 Needless to say, the FBI made it appear as if US was responsible for the
fabrication and distribution of these cartoons. Interestingly enough, the BPP and US
actually tried to work out their differences after the shoot-out, even though the FBI was
using its caricatures to further aggravate the tensions between the two organizations.
They managed to establish a truce, but it was not stable enough to resist the FBI’s
relentless assaults. In order to violently break the truce, the FBI instructed its informants
within the BPP’s Los Angeles and San Diego chapters to initiate violent operations against
US, such as shooting up the homes of some of its members. At the same time, the FBI
would be distributing more cartoons as well, seeing as how the FBI’s San Diego field office
had informed the FBI headquarters that the Panthers were fed up with being made fun of
in cartoons. 79
77
U.S. Senate, Staff Reports, 190.
Ibidem.
79
Churchill, “To Disrupt, Discredit, Destroy,” 16-17.
78
51 – Niels Haak 3150984
The Bureau was apparently successful in its activities, as violence between the BPP and
US began to escalate once again. On August 14, 1969, members of US wounded two
Panthers in an ambush; the next day, they killed Sylvester Bell, another BPP member. The
FBI considered this increase of violence to be a positive result of its smear campaign, and
so it immediately began making plans for the future distribution of cartoons. The FBI
continued its efforts to promote violence between the BPP and US throughout 1969-70,
hoping that they would continue to inflict serious harm to one another. In fact, the FBI
was convinced that it only had to push the two organizations in the right direction. All
that was left to do was to “grant nature the opportunity to take her due course.” 80
What is interesting about the conflict between the BPP and US in particular is that
it clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of the FBI’s counter-intelligence programs. At
first, it seemed as if the FBI’s efforts were to no avail, seeing as how the BPP and US
reconciled their differences. However, by continuing to produce and distribute
derogatory cartoons, the FBI managed to instigate a conflict between the two
organizations once again. The truce was not very stable to begin with, but the
continuation of violent conflict between the BPP and US can nevertheless still be
attributed to the FBI’s counter-intelligence activities. However, in the context of the
demise of the BPP, it is necessary to consider the impact of these activities on the Party’s
internal dynamics as well.
Inter-party conflict such as this would eventually contribute to the demise of the
BPP in several ways. First and foremost, people grew tired of all the violence that was
tearing the black community apart. As was the case with intra-party conflict, excessive
violence was one of the reasons why people began leaving the Party. After all, they joined
80
U.S. Senate, Staff Reports, 189-195.
Churchill, “To Disrupt, Discredit, Destroy,” 17-18 .
52 – Niels Haak 3150984
the BPP with the concept of self-defense in mind, not fratricide. Furthermore, inter-party
conflict was a major distraction from the BPP’s actual goals. Instead of fighting the
oppressor, the Panthers were too busy fighting within their own community.
Unbeknownst to them, this oppressor, in the form of the FBI, was largely responsible for
the entire situation. The FBI’s efforts to promote inter-party conflict thus took a heavy toll
on the Black Panther Party.
The FBI’s counter-intelligence activities were so successful in part because of the Bureau’s
ability to exploit and exacerbate the Black Panther Party’s pre-existing internal and
external conditions. This was clearly demonstrated in the case of the Newton-Cleaver rift
and the conflict between the BPP and US, but it also became apparent in the FBI’s media
offensive. The FBI realized from the outset that it would have to limit the Party’s ability to
spread its message via the media. By preventing the BPP from publishing its articles and
stories, the Bureau would be able to create a distorted image of the Party in the national
media. The easiest way to do this was to manipulate the Party’s self-created image.
In Up Against the Wall, Curtis J. Austin argues that the BPP’s emphasis on selfdefense left it open to mischaracterization and infiltration by government agencies on a
local and national level. Since the beginning of the Party, the Panthers had relied on
rhetoric of violence to carry across their revolutionary ideals. According to Austin, this
rhetoric had two major effects on the BPP: it helped to attract a lot of young new recruits,
and it placed the Party in a national spotlight. Whereas the former stimulated growth, the
latter stimulated decline. This had to do with the fact that the government and the FBI
made sure that the BPP’s ideals would be misinterpreted. The Party’s rhetoric of violence
and its emphasis on self-defense had developed out of a need for the black community to
53 – Niels Haak 3150984
defend itself against police brutality. The Panthers never meant to unleash civil war in the
United States. Rather, they were merely trying to demonstrate that they would no longer
put up with the physical and psychological abuse. As Austin puts it, the BPP’s emphasis on
violence was “rhetorical flourish”, which underlined the use of violence “in self-defense,
not revolution.” 81
The point is that the Panthers’ rhetoric of violence should not be taken literally.
As D. J. Mulloy argues in an article entitled “Liberty or Death”, violent language and
rhetoric of revolution could be interpreted as being a strategy for those who lack both
political and social influence. Furthermore, this type of language can also serve to attract
attention to one’s cause, whether it is positive or negative. These two interpretations
clearly apply to the BPP. The black community was essentially powerless against police
brutality and other forms of social oppression, because it was not organized. Being a part
of this community and sharing its powerlessness, the Panthers sought to create a new
political movement which was supposed to assist the black community in liberating itself.
Their rhetoric of violence, as Mulloy suggests, attracted attention to their cause and
served as an important recruitment tool, because people shared the BPP’s desire for
change. So, lacking political power, the BPP initially relied on its rhetoric of violence to
mobilize the black community for change. 82
Unfortunately for the BPP, the media took everything that the Panthers said
literally. Slogans such as “Off the pigs!” would be turned into headlines, which generally
intimidated a lot of people. The Party’s emphasis on self-defense and its rhetoric of
violence were easily misinterpreted, which the FBI realized all too well. By manipulating
81
Austin, Up Against the Wall, 89-112.
D. J. Mulloy, “’Liberty or Death’: Violence and the Rhetoric of Revolution in the American Militia
Movement,” Canadian Review of American Studies 1 (2008) 6-16.
82
54 – Niels Haak 3150984
the Party’s self-created image, the FBI could easily distort people’s perception of the BPP.
If people were made to believe that the Panthers were a bunch of gun-toting criminals,
the FBI would be able justify its counter-intelligence actions. After all, a violence-prone
organization such as the BPP would have to be repressed in order to safeguard the status
quo in the United States.
By carefully exploiting the BPP’s militant image, the FBI hoped that it could
discredit and discourage people who supported the Party in its community organizing
efforts. A good example of this approach was the FBI’s effort to drive a wedge between
the BPP and the Peace and Freedom Party (PFP). As was discussed in the first chapter,
Eldridge Cleaver had forged an alliance with the PFP after Huey Newton was sentenced to
prison. This alliance proved to be an important organizational step in the development of
the BPP, because it was one of the first interracial coalitions that the BPP had joined. Now
that two of America’s most radical organizations were cooperating, the FBI had plenty of
reason to be worried. The Bureau therefore began sending letters to Ed Pearl, one of the
founders of the PFP, to convince him of the fact that the BPP was a dangerous
organization. The letters stated that “certain whites in the PFP who get in the way of the
Panthers will be dealt with in a violent manner.” 83 By hinting at personal violence, the FBI
hoped that it could intimidate the PFP. In more extreme cases, the FBI would send out
forged letters to supporters of the Party, which suggested that the BPP was an
organization “which openly advocates the violent overthrow of our free enterprise
system.” 84 The FBI thus frequently drew upon the Panthers’ violent image to get people
to withdraw their support for the BPP.
83
84
U.S. Senate, Staff Reports, 208.
Idem, 209.
55 – Niels Haak 3150984
The FBI’s media offensive was successful in that it both prevented the Panthers from
expressing their views and stimulated the media to publish articles that were unfavorable
to the Party. A prime example of how this worked was the article that was published after
the assassination of Fred Hampton. People were led to believe that the Panthers fired
first, which would justify the police’s actions. According to the newspapers, they acted
out of self-defense, which is, in the context of the BPP’s emphasis on self-defense, quite
ironic. The media simply relied on the existing image of the violence-prone Panthers to
distort the truth of what had actually occurred that night. Even when it became clear that
the story had been fabricated by the police and the media, nobody was inclined to believe
the Panthers. The ways in which the assassination of Fred Hampton was reported
therefore shows how easily the FBI and the media could manipulate and exploit the BPP’s
self-created image. 85
The FBI’s media offensive did not necessarily contribute directly to the demise of
the BPP, but it certainly made life for the Panthers much harder than it needed to be.
Their goals were misinterpreted, they lost public support, and recruitment became more
difficult. One could also argue that the BPP made life difficult for itself, in the early stages
of its existence, by relying so heavily on its rhetoric of violence. As Curtis J. Austin argues,
this rhetoric is the main reason for why the BPP has been mischaracterized throughout
the years. It turned the Party into a target for local and national law enforcement
agencies, which used the image of the violence-prone Panthers to intimidate people and
to distort reality. With the full force of the FBI’s counter-intelligence programs bearing
down on the BPP, Austin claims, the Party’s fate had already been sealed. All that the FBI
85
Churchill and Vander Wall, Agents of Repression, 63-77.
56 – Niels Haak 3150984
had to do was to carefully exploit the BPP’s self-created image. By doing so, the Bureau
ensured that the Panthers would be fighting an uphill battle from the start. 86
The question that remains to be answered is how effective the FBI’s counter-intelligence
programs actually were. It is clear that these programs directly influenced the BPP and its
members, but it is difficult to determine just how much of a difference they made. The
problem in this regard is how one should measure the “effectiveness” of the programs. In
the past, several sociologists have pondered this very same question.
In an article entitled “Thoughts on a Neglected Category of Social Movement
Participant”, sociologist Gary T. Marx makes an important differentiation between highly
centralized social organizations on the one hand, and decentralized organizations on the
other hand. He argues that “the protest organizations of the 1960s consisted not of highly
centralized, formally organized, tightly knit groups of experience revolutionaries bent on
carefully planned criminal conspiracies, but were instead decentralized, with fluid
leadership and task assignments, shifting memberships, and emphasis on participation.”87
Marx claims that outside penetration of these “open” groups by organizations such as the
FBI would have had a significantly weaker effect than it would have on “closed” groups,
because the “open” groups were often optimistic, maybe a tad naïve, and generally had
nothing to hide. In this context, the Black Panther Party would be considered to be a
“closed” group, because of its hierarchization and formal organization. Marx’s theory thus
suggests that the Party, being a “closed” group, would have been more affected by
86
Austin, Up Against the Wall, 335-348.
Gary T. Marx, “Thoughts on a Neglected Category of Social Movement Participant: The Agents
Provocateur and the Informant,” The American Journal of Sociology 2 (September, 1974) 424.
87
57 – Niels Haak 3150984
outside influences and infiltration, and was a more interesting target than many of the
other organizations of the civil rights era. 88
In a different article by Marx, entitled “External Efforts to Damage or Facilitate
Social Movements”, he suggests that the effectiveness of the FBI’s counter-intelligence
actions was determined in large part by the extent to which these actions damaged or
facilitated the course of organizations’ growth, development and decline. According to
Marx, the FBI’s programs brought about changes which would have most likely occurred
without these outside influences as well. The Bureau’s counter-intelligence programs
merely accelerated the rate at which these changes occurred. So, even though Marx
suggested that “closed” organizations such as the BPP were more susceptible to outside
infiltration, he later came to believe that the impact of the FBI’s counter-intelligence
programs was marginal at best. 89
In the context of the BPP, it is important to consider that Marx’s first article was
published in 1974, and the second article in 1979. Seeing as how the Church Committee
reports were published in 1975/1976, it is very likely that Marx would have studied these
reports in order to learn more about the details of the FBI’s counter-intelligence
programs. While much more was known about the internal problems of the BPP in 1979
as well, it is quite odd that Marx would so easily relativize the impact of the FBI’s counterintelligence programs on the BPP and other social movements of the 1960-70s.
Another leading sociologist, Anthony Oberschall, reached similar conclusions in an
article entitled “The Decline of the 1960s Social Movements”. In this article, Oberschall
argues that the impact of government repression on social movements of the 1960s was
88
Marx, “Thoughts on a Neglected Category of Social Movement Participant,” 423-424.
Gary T. Marx, “External Efforts to Damage or Facilitate Social Movements: Some Patterns, Explanations,
Outcomes, and Complications,” in The Dynamics of Social Movements: Resource Mobilization, Social Control
and Tactics, ed. Mayer N. Zald and John D. McCarthy et al. (Cambridge: Winthrop, 1979) 119-122.
89
58 – Niels Haak 3150984
not as important as scholars were led to believe. He claims that government repression is
only effective if all authorities work together and reinforce one another’s actions, which
he believes was clearly not the case in the 1960s. Prosecutions on a local and state level
might have been more effective, but, in general, “repression of the 1960s movements
was only marginally effective in precipitating movement decline.” 90 So, in similar fashion
to Gary T. Marx, Oberschall concludes that internal weaknesses were far more important
than external repression. 91
The general consensus among sociologists in the late 1970s thus seems to have
been that the FBI’s counter-intelligence programs were only marginally effective. In more
recent scholarship, however, the issue has become more complex. Now that scholars are
beginning to learn more and more about the true nature of the FBI’s counter-intelligence
programs, it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the impact of these programs on
the 1960s social movements. In the case of the BPP, there are still scholars who continue
to emphasize either the internal factors, such as Ollie A. Johnson in “Explaining the
Demise of the Black Panther Party”, or the external factors, such as Curtis J. Austin in Up
Against the Wall, but, in general, most modern scholars seem to realize that the FBI’s
counter-intelligence programs had more than just a marginal effect on social movements
such as the BPP. The FBI’s programs were part of a larger system of government
repression which clearly affected the organizational development of the Party. Therefore,
one cannot discuss the growth and demise of the Black Panther Party without carefully
considering the influence of the FBI and COINTELPRO.
90
Anthony Oberschall, Social Movements: Ideologies, Interests, and Identities (New Jersey: Transaction
Publishers, 1993) 291.
91
Oberschall, Social Movements, 265-300.
59 – Niels Haak 3150984
So how effective were the FBI’s counter-intelligence programs? If one takes Gary T.
Marx’s argument, that the effectiveness of these programs was determined mainly by the
extent to which they influenced the growth, development, and decline of the social
movements, and combines this with the knowledge of the Black Panther Party and the FBI
that we have now, it would not make sense to conclude that the FBI’s counterintelligence programs merely had a marginal influence on the BPP. The FBI’s efforts to
promote inter- and intra-party conflict, to destroy the BPP’s public image, and to induce
paranoia within the ranks of the Party, all clearly contributed to the demise of the BPP.
These efforts resulted in an increase of authoritarianism and factionalism within the
Party, defection of members, loss of public support, and a general increase of violence. In
other words, the FBI’s efforts certainly did precipitate the decline of the BPP. So, if one
equates effectiveness to decline, it becomes clear that the FBI’s counter-intelligence
programs were certainly effective.
One important argument that is still being used to downplay the importance of
the FBI’s programs is the fact that the FBI merely capitalized on pre-existing tensions
within the BPP. As Gary T. Marx also argues, the Bureau’s counter-intelligence programs
only served to accelerate those internal changes which would have occurred without the
FBI’s interference as well. The basis for this argument is the understanding that the BPP
was deeply flawed in its organizational structure, and that it was therefore only a matter
of time before the Party would implode on itself. On the one hand, there is some truth to
this argument, because the BPP’s strict hierarchy and formal organization indirectly laid
the foundation for the future increase of authoritarianism and factionalism within the
Party. On the other hand, however, the BPP’s internal tensions would most likely not
have been as intense without the FBI’s counter-intelligence programs. For example, it is
60 – Niels Haak 3150984
difficult to imagine that the Newton-Cleaver rift would have played out exactly the same
without the interference of the FBI as well. Needless to say, internal tensions and
developments within the Black Panther Party had a disastrous effect on the organization
and its members, but it is paramount that these internal factors always be discussed in
relation to the external factors, and vice versa.
Even though this paper has examined how effective the FBI’s counter-intelligence
programs actually were, the role of these programs in the demise of the Black Panther
Party should not be overestimated. The same goes for the role of internal factors. By
claiming that either internal or external factors were more important in the demise of the
BPP, or rather, by marginalizing the effects of one of them, the overall complexity of the
discussion is being sidetracked. As Doug McAdam argues in “The Decline of the Civil
Rights Movement,” a social movement is shaped by both internal and external factors
throughout its existence, and so “the fate of any social movement is not simply a product
of internal movement dynamics or external political processes but the interaction of the
two.” 92 This interaction between internal and external forces is what really gives shape to
a social movement. On the one hand, the internal development of a movement cannot be
understood without carefully considering both the direct and indirect influence of
external forces on that movement. On the other hand, the development of external
forces and processes cannot be understood without carefully considering the ways in
which a social movement develops internally. The keyword, therefore, is interaction.
In the case of the Black Panther Party, interaction between internal and external
forces has manifested itself in several different ways. One of the clearest examples of this
92
McAdam, “The Decline of the Civil Rights Movement,” 316.
61 – Niels Haak 3150984
interaction is the way in which internal and external forces had a mutually reinforcing
effect on one another. As was discussed before, the internal development of the NewtonCleaver rift within the BPP, and the subsequent launch of the FBI’s counter-intelligence
programs aimed at aggravating that rift, clearly demonstrated that effect and its results.
The internal and external forces would feed off one another to the point where the
conflicts would have become irreconcilable. This was clearly the case with the defection
of Eldridge Cleaver, as a result of the Newton-Cleaver rift, but it also occurred in other
contexts. For example, the interaction between internal and external forces in the context
of inter-party conflict led to irreconcilable differences between the BPP and other
organizations. Furthermore, this particular process also played an important role in the
public exploitation of the Panthers’ rhetoric of violence. The demise of the BPP was
therefore not simply a result of internal or external forces. Neither should be
overemphasized nor marginalized. Instead, the demise of the Black Panther Party should
be considered the result of the interaction and synthesis between both internal and
external forces.
62 – Niels Haak 3150984
Conclusion
The Black Panther Party is arguably one of the most misinterpreted and mischaracterized
social movements in recent history. Following in the footsteps of the leaders of the civil
rights era, the Panthers set out to revolutionize thinking in the black communities of the
United States. With its initial emphasis on armed conflict and its rhetoric of violence, the
BPP created an image for itself which was easily misinterpreted by the general public.
However, underneath its militant surface, the BPP was defined by its strong social
ideology.
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party as a response to
the various forms of social oppression which the black communities of Oakland were
confronted with on a daily basis. Their Ten-Point Program stated in simple terms what the
BPP stood for and what it hoped to achieve. Simple things, such as proper education,
housing, and health care, were still unavailable to a large part of the community, and so
the BPP set out to do something about this situation. By setting up a variety of
community organized survival programs, the Party intended to support the people until
they could free themselves from their oppressor. Supporting the people also meant
protecting them, and so the Panthers took to the streets, armed with their shotguns and
books of law, to protect these people from the threat of police brutality. This
revolutionary approach to civil rights quickly turned the BPP into a notorious
organization, both within the Bay Area and the United States as a whole. While many
people celebrated the Panthers’ cause, others were feeling increasingly threatened by the
prospect of revolution within the black communities. So, once the Party attained national
63 – Niels Haak 3150984
prominence, there was no escaping persecution by local and federal law enforcement
agencies.
The FBI had set its sights on the Black Panther Party in September, 1968, with J.
Edgar Hoover declaring that the BPP was the greatest threat to the internal security of
the United States. The Bureau’s main counter-intelligence program, COINTELPRO, had
been active since the late 1950s, and had been focused on so-called “Black Nationalist
Hate Groups” since the mid-1960s. Hoover clearly considered the BPP to be a threat to
the status quo in the United States, and so the Party was labeled a Black Nationalist Hate
Group as well. As was the case with the other targets of COINTELPRO, the FBI aimed to
disrupt and neutralize the BPP. In order to do so, the Bureau had set a number of goals
for its operations: fostering both inter-and intra-party conflict; undermining public
support for the Party; and destroying the Party’s public image. The FBI had a large
number of (extralegal) methods at hand to achieve these goals, such as distributing false
information, inducing paranoia by placing informants within the ranks of the BPP, and
even getting people to assassinate prominent Panthers. The FBI therefore had many ways
to persecute the BPP and its members, a fact which constituted a considerable handicap
for the Party. Besides having to deal with internal developments and tensions, the BPP
also had to deal with the external pressure created by the FBI’s counter-intelligence
programs.
As the 1960s came to a close, problems began accumulating for Huey Newton and
the Black Panther Party. The first real setback was the fact that Newton was sentenced to
prison in 1968 for a murder he did not commit. With Newton no longer in charge, the
Party became increasingly fractured. The rank-and-file members were not content with
David Hilliard’s leadership, and many longed for Newton’s return. When he finally did
64 – Niels Haak 3150984
return in 1970, the Party began its slow and painful demise. Developments such as the
Newton-Cleaver rift, the centralization of BPP operations in Oakland, the 1973 mayoral
election, and the rise of authoritarianism within the Party all contributed to its eventual
demise. However, these internal developments would not have had the same effect on
the BPP without the influence of the FBI’s counter-intelligence programs. By fostering
inter- and intra-party conflict, exploiting the BPP’s rhetoric of violence, destroying its
public image, and discrediting and discouraging its supporters, the FBI both directly and
indirectly contributed to the demise of the Party.
Scholars have been debating the influence of both internal and external factors on
social movements since the late 1960s. Outside influences, such as the FBI’s counterintelligence programs, were often considered to be only marginally effective in bringing
about the demise of these movements; internal factors were generally considered to be
more important. However, if one measures the effectiveness of the counter-intelligence
programs by the extent to which they precipitated the decline of social movements, it
becomes clear that the FBI’s programs had more than just a marginal effect. Even though
the FBI mainly capitalized on pre-existing tensions and developments within the BPP, the
impact of COINTELPRO should not be underestimated. At the same time, it should not be
overestimated either. As I have attempted to show, the internal and external forces
operated in tandem and had a mutually reinforcing effect on one another. Therefore, the
interaction between these forces is what eventually led to the demise of the BPP.
While most scholars nowadays construct fairly balanced accounts of the demise
of the Black Panther Party, there is still a tendency to lean towards either internal or
external factors as being the primary explanation for this demise. By doing so, the
complexity of this issue is often undermined. With the ideas of Doug McAdam in mind, it
65 – Niels Haak 3150984
is necessary to consider the demise of the BPP in the context of interaction between
internal and external forces. The debate should not be focused on what has contributed
more to the demise of the Party, because this will only result in a seemingly endless
discussion. Instead, by focusing on processes of interaction and synthesis, the debate can
be moved into new directions.
66 – Niels Haak 3150984
Appendix A
OCTOBER 1966
BLACK PANTHER PARTY
PLATFORM AND PROGRAM
WHAT WE WANT
WHAT WE BELIEVE
1. WE WANT FREEDOM. WE WANT POWER TO DETERMINE THE DESTINY OF OUR BLACK
AND OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES. We believe that Black and oppressed people will not be
free until we are able to determine our destinies in our own communities ourselves, by
fully controlling all the institutions which exist in our communities.
2. WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE. We believe that the federal government
is responsible and obligated to give every person employment or a guaranteed income.
We believe that if the American businessmen will not give full employment, then the
technology and means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed
in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its
people and give a high standard of living.
3. WE WANT AN END TO THE ROBBERY BY THE CAPITALISTS OF OUR BLACK AND OPPRESSED
COMMUNITIES. We believe that this racist government has robbed us and now we are
demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules
67 – Niels Haak 3150984
were promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave labor and mass murder of Black
people. We will accept the payment in currency which will be distributed to our many
communities. The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of our fifty million Black
people. Therefore, we feel this is a modest demand that we make.
4. WE WANT DECENT HOUSING, FIT FOR THE SHELTER OF HUMAN BEINGS. We believe that
if the landlords will not give decent housing to our Black and oppressed communities,
then housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that the people in our
communities, with government aid, can build and make decent housing for the people.
5. WE WANT DECENT EDUCATION FOR OUR PEOPLE THAT EXPOSES THE TRUE NATURE OF
THIS DECADENT AMERICAN SOCIETY. WE WANT EDUCATION THAT TEACHES US OUR
TRUE HISTORY AND OUR ROLE IN THE PRESENT-DAY SOCIETY. We believe in an
educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of the self. If you do not have
knowledge of yourself and your position in the society and in the world, then you will
have little chance to know anything else.
6. WE WANT COMPLETELY FREE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL BLACK AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE. We
believe that the government must provide, free of charge, for the people, health facilities
which will not only treat our illnesses, most of which have come about as a result of our
oppression, but which will also develop preventive medical programs to guarantee our
future survival. We believe that mass health education and research programs must be
developed to give all Black and oppressed people access to advanced scientific and
medical information, so we may provide ourselves with proper medical attention and
care.
7. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO POLICE BRUTALITY AND MURDER OF BLACK PEOPLE,
OTHER PEOPLE OF COLOR, ALL OPPRESSED PEOPLE INSIDE THE UNITED STATES. We
68 – Niels Haak 3150984
believe that the racist and fascist government of the United States uses its domestic
enforcement agencies to carry out its program of oppression against black people, other
people of color and poor people inside the United States. We believe it is our right,
therefore, to defend ourselves against such armed forces and that all Black and
oppressed people should be armed for self defense of our homes and communities
against these fascist police forces.
8. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO ALL WARS OF AGGRESSION. We believe that the
various conflicts which exist around the world stem directly from the aggressive desire of
the United States ruling circle and government to force its domination upon the
oppressed people of the world. We believe that if the United States government or its
lackeys do not cease these aggressive wars it is the right of the people to defend
themselves by any means necessary against their aggressors.
9. WE WANT FREEDOM FOR ALL BLACK AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE NOW HELD IN U. S.
FEDERAL, STATE, COUNTY, CITY, AND MILITARY PRISONS AND JAILS. WE WANT TRIALS BY
A JURY OF PEERS FOR ALL PERSONS CHARGED WITH SO-CALLED CRIMES UNDER THE
LAWS OF THIS COUNTRY. We believe that the many Black and poor oppressed people
now held in United States prisons and jails have not received fair and impartial trials
under a racist and fascist judicial system and should be free from incarceration. We
believe in the ultimate elimination of all wretched, inhuman penal institutions, because
the masses of men and women imprisoned inside the United States or by the United
States military are the victims of oppressive conditions which are the real cause of their
imprisonment. We believe that when persons are brought to trial they must be
guaranteed, by the United States, juries of their peers, attorneys of their choice and
freedom from imprisonment while awaiting trial.
69 – Niels Haak 3150984
10. WE WANT LAND, BREAD, HOUSING, EDUCATION, CLOTHING, JUSTICE, PEACE AND
PEOPLE'S COMMUNITY CONTROL OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY. When, in the course of
human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which
have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the
separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a
decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes
which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights;
that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these
rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of
these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new
government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such
form as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness. Prudence,
indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light
and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are most
disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the
forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpation,
pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute
despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide
new guards for their future security.
70 – Niels Haak 3150984
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 Cleaver, Eldridge, Soul On Ice. New York: Dell Publishing, 1968.
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 Seale, Bobby, Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P.
Newton. Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1991.
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 Pearson, Hugh, The Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black
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 Churchill, Ward, “‘To Disrupt, Discredit, and Destroy’: The FBI’s Secret War Against
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Zald and John D. McCarthy. Cambridge: Winthrop, 1979.
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McAdam, Doug, “The Decline of the Civil Rights Movement.” In Social Movements
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 Garrow, David. J., “FBI Political Harassment and FBI Historiography: Analyzing
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